Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015:2015:328196.
doi: 10.1155/2015/328196. Epub 2015 Mar 4.

Acupuncture for low back pain: an overview of systematic reviews

Lizhou Liu  1 , Margot Skinner  1 , Suzanne McDonough  2 , Leon Mabire  1 , George David Baxter  1
Affiliations
Review

Acupuncture for low back pain: an overview of systematic reviews

Lizhou Liu et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015.

Abstract

Objective. As evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture for low back pain (LBP) is inconsistent, we aimed to critically appraise the evidence from relevant systematic reviews. Methods. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning acupuncture and LBP were searched in seven databases. Internal validity and external validity of systematic reviews were assessed. Systematic reviews were categorized and high quality reviews assigned greater weightings. Conclusions were generated from a narrative synthesis of the outcomes of subgroup comparisons. Results. Sixteen systematic reviews were appraised. Overall, the methodological quality was low and external validity weak. For acute LBP, evidence that acupuncture has a more favorable effect than sham acupuncture in relieving pain was inconsistent; it had a similar effect on improving function. For chronic LBP, evidence consistently demonstrated that acupuncture provides short-term clinically relevant benefits for pain relief and functional improvement compared with no treatment or acupuncture plus another conventional intervention. Conclusion. Systematic reviews of variable quality showed that acupuncture, either used in isolation or as an adjunct to conventional therapy, provides short-term improvements in pain and function for chronic LBP. More efforts are needed to improve both internal and external validity of systematic reviews and RCTs in this area.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of literature search. SR: systematic review; RCTs: randomized controlled trials.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Airaksinen O., Brox J. I., Cedraschi C., et al. Chapter 4. European guidelines for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain. European Spine Journal. 2006;15(supplement 2):S192–S300. doi: 10.1007/s00586-006-1072-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shen F. H., Samartzis D., Andersson G. B. J. Nonsurgical management of acute and chronic low back pain. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 2006;14(8):477–487. - PubMed
    1. Andersson G. B. J. Epidemiological features of chronic low-back pain. The Lancet. 1999;354(9178):581–585. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(99)01312-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Louw Q. A., Morris L. D., Grimmer-Somers K. The Prevalence of low back pain in Africa: a systematic review. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2007;8, article 105 doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-8-105. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jin K., Sorock G. S., Courtney T. K. Prevalence of low back pain in three occupational groups in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Journal of Safety Research. 2004;35(1):23–28. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2003.11.002. - DOI - PubMed