A literature
review was conducted to decide whether acupuncture treatment is
more effective in decreasing pain intensity compared to standard
pain protocols in geriatric patients experiencing chronic pain. The
CINAHL database was used to find nine research studies, from 1999
to 2016, on the topic of acupuncture and chronic pain. The results
were inconclusive about whether acupuncture reduces pain intensity.
For both chronic neck and back pain, most studies supported the
effect of acupuncture in reducing pain intensity, while one study
per these categories which suggested no effect. For chronic spinal
pain, both studies suggested no significant impact in reducing pain
intensity. The findings showed that acupuncture is effective in
decreasing
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The results
suggested that there was a lack of consensus about the ideal
treatment for chronic pain, but acupuncture is gaining popularity
in the Western
medicine.
Acupuncture is worthwhile for the hospital to implement as an
alternative to relieve pain since it has no side effects. The
sample size, intervention length, and method of sham acupuncture
might contribute to the contradiction of the results. All studies
were randomized controlled trials, but most studies had small
sample sizes and short study times. Most studies use sham
acupuncture to cut placebo effect; however, each study had
different standards and technique for sham acupuncture. The sham
acupuncture might possibly produce a therapeutic effect and
interfere with the result interpretation. For the chronic spinal
pain studies, there might be some bias since both studies were
conducted by the same researchers and same setting in different
years. The results would be stronger if the studies were conducted
in different settings and with a different population.
This literature review assessed the current state of research
on acupuncture and added new insight to the current understanding
of acupuncture. The review revealed that acupuncture might have a
different therapeutic effect on different anatomic locations. This
review is different from other reviews as it specifically focused
on how acupuncture might impact pain intensity using a VAS score.
The review explored in-depth about the factors that influence the
efficacy of
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