The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Adding acupuncture to physiotherapy to treat osteoarthritis of the knee

    No additional improvement in pain scores was reported in this study.

    First, the details.

    • 352 adults with knee osteoarthritis were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups.
    • Advice and exercise
    • Advice and exercise plus true acupuncture
    • Advice and exercise plus non-penetrating acupuncture

    And, the results.

    • After 6 months of treatment there was no significant difference in pain score among the groups.
    • Compared with advice and exercise alone there were small, statistically significant improvements in pain intensity and unpleasantness at 2 and 6 weeks for true acupuncture and at all follow-up points for non-penetrating acupuncture.

    The bottom line?
    The authors conclude, “The addition of acupuncture to a course of advice and exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee delivered by physiotherapists provided no additional improvement in pain scores.”

    Again, sham acupuncture confounds the evaluation of real acupuncture. More perspective on this issue is here.

    8/17/07 10:46 JR

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