Is Sham Acupuncture Just The Same As Real Acupuncture When It Comes To Relief and Management of Pain?

The wealth of scientific research that has been and is being done into acupuncture’s use for various health conditions attests to the legitimacy and potentiality of this treatment, especially for the treatment and management of pain. Much of those studies however have led to the conclusion that acupuncture usually does not outperform sham therapy which calls into question the legitimacy of the treatment itself.

Traditional acupuncture is a procedure that uses thin tiny needles stuck into certain points on the body known as acupoints. Chinese medicine believes that these acupoints are located just above energy channels called meridians in the body. When a blockage develops along the meridians pain and disease develop. The needles are used to remove the blockage to once more allow the free movement of energy in the body. Western medical researchers believe that the mechanism of action is either the stimulation of blood flow or the stimulation of nerves in the body.

The reason why the effectiveness of sham therapy calls into question the legitimacy of real acupuncture is that this implies that whatever benefits are gained from the procedure can be attributed to the placebo effect alone. However, more studies into sham therapy – and, especially, people who gained good results from it – shows that this type of therapy may actually possess pain relieving qualities of its own.

One study suggested that the sensitivity of people to pain may be a factor in knowing whether sham acupuncture was effective (or not) for them. People suffering from systemic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, can find relief from treatments that stimulate sensations in the body designed to reduce pain. Since less sensation in the body is stimulated by sham acupuncture, the conductors of the study believed that only patients with high pain sensitivity would be ideal test subjects for sham acupuncture, since these patients require less stimulation to experience results.

A total of 50 women all suffering from fibromyalgia participated in the study. They were divided into either a traditional acupuncture treatment group or sham group. Prior to the start of the treatment, the pain sensitivity of the participants was measured through a test that exerted pressure on their thumbs, which the participants rated. The neurochemical levels associated with pain sensation were also measured by the researchers. After treatment the thumb pressure test was administered. In sham acupuncture treatment, the needles did not penetrate the skin. This procedure consisted of a gentle pricking with the needles.

The participants who manifested more sensitivity to pain experienced much better improvements in pain sensitivity after sham treatment, compared to the participants who had low sensitivity to begin with, at the end of the study. Both low-sensitivity and high-sensitivity patients had comparable outcomes for traditional acupuncture.

The study showed that using subjects with a high degree of pain sensitivity aren’t likely to produce marked differences in efficacy between real and sham acupuncture treatments. It also indicates that people with high pain sensitivity may need a less intensive form of acupuncture compared to those with less pain sensitivity. Chronic pain sufferers should consider acupuncture in Overland Park as a worthwhile option to help manage their pain.