Acupuncture helps pain management in the Emergency Department and is a feasible and acceptable strategy for reducing musculoskeletal pain, compared with usual care alone, according to an American study.
The pragmatic randomised study had as its focus pain in the neck, back and extremities, presenting at an urban emergency department in North Carolina. Stage 1 compared two styles of acupuncture, and stage 2 evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture compared with usual care alone. Across 236 patients, mean age 46, acupuncture plus usual care reduced pain by up to 1.6 points more on an 11-point scale, compared with usual care alone. Participants in the acupuncture group reported high satisfaction with the intervention.
The researchers point out that international organizations are increasingly calling for nonpharmacologic strategies, including acupuncture, to treat pain. They conclude that these results support the integration of acupuncture into emergency department pain management.
(An Adaptive Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial of Emergency Department Acupuncture for Acute Musculoskeletal Pain Management. Annals of Emergency Medicine, October 2024.)