2009 Characteristics of patients with chronic back pain who benefit from acupuncture

Description: Background Although many clinicians believe there are clinically important subgroups of persons with "non-specific" low back pain, such subgroups have not yet been clearly identified. As part of a large trial evaluating acupuncture for chronic low back pain, we sought to identify subgroups of participants that were particularly responsive to acupuncture.
Conclusion This secondary analysis found little evidence for the existence of subgroups of patients with chronic back pain that would be especially likely to benefit from acupuncture. However, persons with chronic low back pain who had more severe baseline dysfunction had the most short-term benefit from acupuncture.
Karen J Sherman , Daniel C Cherkin , Laura Ichikawa , Andrew L Avins , William E Barlow , Partap S Khalsa and Richard A Deyo BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2009, 10:114 full text available