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).


METHODS
Randomized, double blind (participants, evaluator), placebo (invasive sham) controlled trial.


METHODS
Clinical research center.


METHODS
Seventeen manual wheelchair-using subjects with chronic SCI and chronic musculoskeletal shoulder pain.


METHODS
Participants were randomly assigned to receive 10 treatments of either acupuncture or invasive sham acupuncture (light needling of nonacupuncture points).


METHODS
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.
Dyson-Hudson
Trevor A
TA
Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Center, West Orange, NJ 07052, USA. tdyson-hudson@kmrrec.org
Kadar
Peter
P
LaFountaine
Michael
M
Emmons
Racine
R
Kirshblum
Steven C
SC
Tulsky
David
D
Komaroff
Eugene
E
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D020069:Shoulder Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D014910:Wheelchairs