Acupuncture for Chronic Shoulder Pain in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury: A Small-Scale Clinical Trial

• Published in: Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation Vol. 88; no. 10; pp. 1276 - 1283
• Main Authors: Dyson-Hudson, Trevor A., MD, Kadar, Peter, CA, DiplAc, DOM, LaFountaine, Michael, MEd, ATC/L, Emmons, Racine, MA, Kirshblum, Steven C., MD, Tulsky, David, PhD, Komaroff, Eugene, PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.10.2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acupuncture Therapy; Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cerebrospinal fluid. Meninges. Spinal cord; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Miscellaneous. Osteoarticular involvement in other diseases; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Pain Measurement; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Rehabilitation; Shoulder pain; Shoulder Pain - therapy; Spinal cord injuries; Spinal Cord Injuries - physiopathology; Spinal Cord Injuries - therapy; Wheelchairs; Spinal cord injuries; Rehabilitation; Acupuncture therapy; Shoulder pain; Prognosis; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Manuals; Painful shoulder; Pain; Reeducation; Folk medicine; Spinal cord trauma; Clinical trial; Human; Nervous system diseases; Oriental medicine; Intensity; Striated muscle disease; Chronic; Analgesic; Treatment; Musculoskeletal disorder; Central nervous system disease; Acupuncture; Spinal cord disease
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2007.06.014
• ISSN: 0003-9993

Abstract Dyson-Hudson TA, Kadar P, LaFountaine M, Emmons R, Kirshblum SC, Tulsky D, Komaroff E. Acupuncture for chronic shoulder pain in persons with spinal cord injury: a small-scale clinical trial. Objective To determine the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal shoulder pain in subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design Randomized, double blind (participants, evaluator), placebo (invasive sham) controlled trial. Setting Clinical research center. Participants Seventeen manual wheelchair-using subjects with chronic SCI and chronic musculoskeletal shoulder pain. Interventions Participants were randomly assigned to receive 10 treatments of either acupuncture or invasive sham acupuncture (light needling of nonacupuncture points). Main Outcome Measure Changes in shoulder pain intensity were measured using the Wheelchair User’s Shoulder Pain Index. Results Shoulder pain decreased significantly over time in both the acupuncture and the sham acupuncture groups ( P =.005), with decreases of 66% and 43%, respectively. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups ( P =.364). There was, however, a medium effect size associated with the acupuncture treatment. Conclusions There appears to be an analgesic effect or a powerful placebo effect associated with both acupuncture and sham acupuncture. There was a medium treatment effect associated with the acupuncture, which suggests that it may be superior to sham acupuncture. This observation, along with the limited power, indicates that a larger, more definitive randomized controlled trial using a similar design is warranted.