Portal about Pregnancy

On trial: an ancient remedy

Lower back pain is one of the commonest complaints - I get it myself from time to time, especially when I'm anxious or have sat in the car too long. The self-employed, mysteriously enough, recover from it quicker than those who work for others and can take time off.

Treatment is still less than satisfactory, though it has changed since I qualified, when sufferers were prescribed bed rest and a concoction of drugs, none of which worked very well.

A recent edition of the British Medical Journal has a report of a trial of acupuncture compared with conventional therapy. 241 patients were allocated at random to the two groups. Those who had acupuncture were more apt three months afterwards to say that they were 'very satisfied' with their treatment, compared with those who had

Unfortunately, this did not mean that they were miles better off or in vastly less pain than their co-sufferers who received conventional treatment. They were in somewhat less pain 12 months after treatment, though the reduction was not statistically significant; at 24 months, they were still in slightly less pain, and this time the difference was statistically significant.

It is difficult to know what to conclude from this study. It does not tell us whether acupuncture works, because it might have been the increased level of attention that people in the acupuncture group received that made them feel better. Certainly, the functional disability of the acupuncture group was no different from the other group.

More research, as always, is needed.