A recent network meta-analysis was performed which considered acupuncture versus other physical therapies in the treatment of Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee.
This complex research method is a first in acupuncture studies and was used to show how acupuncture compares with other physical interventions in the treatment of this condition. In a nutshell this research approach has the advantage of being able to pull large amounts of data together. In this study physical interventions were compared with standard care, and then acupuncture was compared with standard care. Interventions compared 18 physical therapies with 4 comparators - standard care, sham, placebo or no treatment.
The results showed that acupuncture is more effective that all other forms of physical therapy and significantly outperforms sham acupuncture. The conclusion was that acupuncture can be considered as one of the more effective physical treatments.
So here we have more evidence to support the use of acupuncture in the treatment of this common condition which for some can be very debilitating.
