Research records
Historical source snapshot. Not freshly verified, not a recommendation. Study findings, community accounts and app defaults are not interchangeable.
Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification. Clinical, regulatory, efficacy, safety and dose claims are not independently established by this review.
Acupuncture
Needling therapy delivered by a practitioner.
Evidence category: Systematic review. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.
Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.
An individual patient data meta-analysis pooled results from 39 randomised trials and over 20,000 patients to compare acupuncture against sham or no-acupuncture control for chronic musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, headache, and shoulder pain. Acupuncture outperformed both comparators, with treatment effects persisting a year later.
Benefits reported in the imported source
- Acupuncture outperformed both sham and no-acupuncture control for musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, headache, and shoulder pain across the pooled patient data.
- Treatment effects persisted with only a small decline at one year in the pooled analysis.
- The meta-analysis drew on individual patient data from 39 trials, a stronger design than pooling only summary statistics.
Risks and limits
- Effect sizes versus sham control were smaller than effect sizes versus no-treatment control, indicating part of the benefit may reflect nonspecific or placebo-related mechanisms.
- Effect sizes varied by trial and were sensitive to the intensity of the control-arm intervention.
- The review covered a limited set of pain conditions and cannot be generalized to other complaints.
Source bottom line: An individual patient data meta-analysis of 39 trials found acupuncture more effective than sham or no-acupuncture control for several chronic pain conditions, with effects persisting a year after treatment.
Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.
Study protocols — reports, not instructions
20,827 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, or shoulder pain, pooled across 39 randomised trials
- Reported regimen
- Acupuncture needling compared against sham acupuncture or against no-acupuncture control across the pooled trials
- Duration
- Trials published through December 2015, with outcomes measured up to one year after treatment
- Reported outcome
- Acupuncture reduced pain and improved function relative to both sham and no-acupuncture control across all four pain conditions, with only a small decline in effect size at one year
- Source
- Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis
Claim provenance
evidence.json#/catalog:recovery:acupuncture/protocols/0
Community and practice descriptions
Accounts of a practice are not evidence of safety or effectiveness. Words such as “standard”, “safe” or “recommended” describe the source account, not verified consensus or this wiki’s advice. Commercial and self-published citations are retained for traceability, not vendor endorsement or independent clinical corroboration.
Unverified imported account — Acupuncture 101 - Kaiser Permanente
An imported authored paraphrase, not a quotation or a recommended protocol.
Review: unverified historical account. The imported wording is preserved for attribution; its full clinical, dosing, efficacy or consensus claims have not been independently established. Described practice context only; no clinical benefit or safety outcome is inferred.
Imported wording: A Kaiser Permanente patient guide describes an acupuncture appointment with dimmed lights, quiet music and the practitioner checking on the person's comfort.
Historical research outcome: verified-description · 2026-10-06
An attributed practice description was verified without importing the source's benefit claims, recommendations or assumptions about prevalence.
- https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/healtharticle.acupuncture-101: verified-description — Independently read the live source and checked this limited, attributed description: A Kaiser Permanente patient guide describes an acupuncture appointment with dimmed lights, quiet music and the practitioner checking on the person's comfort.
Pharmacokinetic context
No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.
Source references
Snapshot provenance
Source ID: catalog:recovery:acupuncture. Commit: adc7684614f9439b41d91a3312b62e7982c7e20e. Review state: historical-not-reverified. Authored links are retained separately from the canonical evidence links in the public data. App templates/defaults and rejected drafts are archived, not deployed.
Related entries and components
None listed.