Great news for acupuncturists who need scientific backup for their claims

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

Great news. See (below) an abstract of a hot-off-the press study

that confirms the clinical effects of AP.

 

The implication of this work is that prevous assessments of AP in

which no significant effect was obtained should be REANALYSED

by the ANCOVA method. See:

 

Clin J Pain. 2004 Sep-Oct;20(5):319-23. Statistical reanalysis of

four recent randomized trials of acupuncture for pain using analysis

of covariance. Vickers AJ. Integrative Medicine Service,

Biostatistics Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,

New York, NY. OBJECTIVES:: Acupuncture has been promoted for

the treatment of chronic pain. Though many randomized trials have

been conducted, these have been criticized for deficiencies of

methodology, acupuncture technique, and sample size. Somewhat

less emphasis has been placed on methods of statistical analysis.

This paper describes 4 recent randomized trials of acupuncture for

musculoskeletal or headache pain. Each trial used statistical

methods that did not adjust for baseline pain scores and were thus

of suboptimal power. The objective of this study is to reanalyze the

trials using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). METHODS:: Raw

data for the 4 trials were obtained from the original authors. Data

were reanalyzed by ANCOVA. RESULTS:: For 2 trials-acupuncture

versus placebo for chronic headache and acupuncture versus

transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation for back pain-reanalysis

did not change the conclusion of no difference between groups, but

showed that clinically significant differences between groups could

not ruled out. Reanalysis of a trial of acupuncture versus placebo

for shoulder pain slightly strengthened the evidence of acupuncture

effectiveness. Reanalysis of the fourth trial, which compared

acupuncture to placebo acupuncture and massage for neck pain,

reversed the results of the original paper: reanalysis found

acupuncture to be effective and that its effectiveness could not be

ascribed to a placebo effect. DISCUSSION:: Future trials of

acupuncture and other modalities for pain should use efficient

statistical methods. ANCOVA is more efficient than unadjusted

analysis where used appropriately. PMID: 15322438 [PubMed - in

process]

 

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