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Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Introduction. Acupuncture was recently shown to be effective in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. However, controversy persists whether the observed effects are specific to acupuncture or merely nonspecific consequences of needling. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the effi...

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Autores principales: Karner, Max, Brazkiewicz, Frank, Remppis, Andrew, Fischer, Joachim, Gerlach, Oliver, Stremmel, Wolfgang, Subramanian, Shanmuga Velayutham, Greten, Henry Johannes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3556424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23365608
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/427265
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author Karner, Max
Brazkiewicz, Frank
Remppis, Andrew
Fischer, Joachim
Gerlach, Oliver
Stremmel, Wolfgang
Subramanian, Shanmuga Velayutham
Greten, Henry Johannes
author_facet Karner, Max
Brazkiewicz, Frank
Remppis, Andrew
Fischer, Joachim
Gerlach, Oliver
Stremmel, Wolfgang
Subramanian, Shanmuga Velayutham
Greten, Henry Johannes
author_sort Karner, Max
collection PubMed
description Introduction. Acupuncture was recently shown to be effective in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. However, controversy persists whether the observed effects are specific to acupuncture or merely nonspecific consequences of needling. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of different acupuncture treatment modalities. Materials and Methods. We compared between three different forms of acupuncture in a prospective randomised trial with a novel double-blinded study design. One-hundred and sixteen patients aged from 35 to 82 with osteoarthritis of the knee were enrolled in three study centres. Interventions were individualised classical/ modern semistandardised acupuncture and non-specific needling. Blinded outcome assessment comprised knee flexibility and changes in pain according to the WOMAC score. Results and Discussion. Improvement in knee flexibility was significantly higher after classical Chinese acupuncture (10.3 degrees; 95% CI 8.9 to 11.7) as compared to modern acupuncture (4.7 degrees; 3.6 to 5.8). All methods achieved pain relief, with a patient response rate of 48 percent for non-specific needling, 64 percent for modern acupuncture, and 73 percent for classical acupuncture. Conclusion. This trial establishes a novel study design enabling double blinding in acupuncture studies. The data suggest a specific effect of acupuncture in knee mobility and both non-specific and specific effects of needling in pain relief.
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spelling pubmed-35564242013-01-30 Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee Karner, Max Brazkiewicz, Frank Remppis, Andrew Fischer, Joachim Gerlach, Oliver Stremmel, Wolfgang Subramanian, Shanmuga Velayutham Greten, Henry Johannes Evid Based Complement Alternat Med Research Article Introduction. Acupuncture was recently shown to be effective in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. However, controversy persists whether the observed effects are specific to acupuncture or merely nonspecific consequences of needling. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of different acupuncture treatment modalities. Materials and Methods. We compared between three different forms of acupuncture in a prospective randomised trial with a novel double-blinded study design. One-hundred and sixteen patients aged from 35 to 82 with osteoarthritis of the knee were enrolled in three study centres. Interventions were individualised classical/ modern semistandardised acupuncture and non-specific needling. Blinded outcome assessment comprised knee flexibility and changes in pain according to the WOMAC score. Results and Discussion. Improvement in knee flexibility was significantly higher after classical Chinese acupuncture (10.3 degrees; 95% CI 8.9 to 11.7) as compared to modern acupuncture (4.7 degrees; 3.6 to 5.8). All methods achieved pain relief, with a patient response rate of 48 percent for non-specific needling, 64 percent for modern acupuncture, and 73 percent for classical acupuncture. Conclusion. This trial establishes a novel study design enabling double blinding in acupuncture studies. The data suggest a specific effect of acupuncture in knee mobility and both non-specific and specific effects of needling in pain relief. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3556424/ /pubmed/23365608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/427265 Text en Copyright © 2013 Max Karner et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Karner, Max
Brazkiewicz, Frank
Remppis, Andrew
Fischer, Joachim
Gerlach, Oliver
Stremmel, Wolfgang
Subramanian, Shanmuga Velayutham
Greten, Henry Johannes
Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title_full Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title_fullStr Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title_full_unstemmed Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title_short Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee
title_sort objectifying specific and nonspecific effects of acupuncture: a double-blinded randomised trial in osteoarthritis of the knee
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3556424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23365608
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/427265
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