Effectiveness of Acupuncture as a Treatment for Chronic Low Back Pain

400863 Spring 2018, Assessment 3 Part B
Assignment — Using Evidence
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Evidence selection
Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is a significant health problem now a days and
recently acupuncture is gaining momentum as a treatment to relief cLBP. To
investigate the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment to cLBP, three
research articles were selected and examined. The objectives of two of them
were to found out whether acupuncture work as pain relief in chronic low back
pain while other one were vested in acupuncture works and tried to provide a
objective method for measurement. Xu et al. (2013) used a meta analysis of
thirteen controlled trials (randomized) to investigate the effect of acupuncture in
cLBP. They identified 2678 patients for their controlled groups and I-square test,
Cohen’s test and Begg’s test were performed for meta analysis. Evaluation
parameters for their clinical outcome were disability, pain intensity, quality of life
and spinal flexion. In their study, they have shown that acupuncture achieved
better results in comparison with other treatments for cLBP. Like the previous
research study, Weiß et al. (2013) have also studied the effectiveness of the
acupuncture as a treatment of cLBP but with different design. There subject
were patient from a rehabilitation program and total 143 patients were took part
in two group. One was control and the other one was intervened with
acupuncture treatment. They also pointed out that acupuncture is an effective
method. In contrast with the previous two research program, Li et al. (2013)
have assumed that acupuncture is an effective method and tried to provide an
objective method for measurement by studying altered default mode network.
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400863 Spring 2018, Assessment 3 Part B
The objective of this evidence search was to find out whether acupuncture is an
effective treatment tool against cLBP. For this purpose, research article of Xu et
al. (2013) and Weiß et al. (2013) were selected. However, mechanism of
acupuncture is still not very much clear and pain is subjective matter. To answer
this predicament, study of Li et al. (2013) were selected.
Evidence summary
Chronic low back pain is one of most common reason for people to attain
medical treatment and it is quite a financial burden to some families. In that
context, acupuncture is increasing popularity as a treatment for chronic low back
pain. Therefore, this essay will discuss the effectiveness of acupuncture as a
treatment of chronic low back pain based on academic research.
Xu et al. (2013) have shown in their study that acupuncture is an effective tool
against acupuncture. They have also shown that it is much more effective that
other treatments for chronic low back pain. Similar like the previous author,
Weiß et al. (2013) have reported similar findings in their study. Along with that,
they have also reported that acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is
highly accepted among the subjects and acupuncture is a well tolerated
treatment with close to none adverse events. However, mechanism of
acupuncture is still not clear and there is no clear objective protocol for this
treatment method. Along with that, pain is a subjective matter which poses a
significant hindrance in this situation. Keeping this situation in mind, Li et al.
(2014) have sought to investigate how acupuncture influences chronic low back
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