Acupressure for low back pain

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7543.680

BMJ 2006;332:680-681 (25 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7543.680

Editorial

Acupressure for low back pain

Promising but not proved

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Disability associated with low back pain is an important publichealth problem. Clinical trials carried out in the Western worldshow conventional treatment to have, at best, modest effects,^1-3and international guidelines agree only on the need to advisepatients to remain physically active and prescribe appropriatepain medication.⁴ Other treatments that are evidence based andrecommended for chronic low back pain, such as exercise andcognitive behaviour therapy, depend on substantial commitmentand lifestyle change. It is therefore not surprising that patientsseek alternative and complementary medicine in their searchfor pain relief, and a paper from Taiwan by Hsieh and colleagueson p 696 reports a randomised controlled trial of one such therapy—acupressure.⁵

In the United Kingdom, osteopathy and chiropractic are the typesof complementary medicine most commonly sought by people withback pain,⁶ but therapies derived from the Chinese model ofmedicine are also popular. . . . [Full text of this article]

Helen Frost, research fellow

Division of Health in the Community, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
(h.frost.1@warwick.ac.uk)

Sarah Stewart-Brown, professor of public health

Division of Health in the Community, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
(sarah.stewart-brown@warwick.ac.uk)

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Treatment of low back pain by acupressure and physical therapy: randomised controlled trial: Lisa Li-Chen Hsieh, Chung-Hung Kuo, Liang Huei Lee, Amy Ming-Fang Yen, Kuo-Liong Chien, and Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen
BMJ 2006 332: 696-700. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

United Kingdom back pain exercise and manipulation (UK BEAM) randomised trial: cost effectiveness of physical treatments for back pain in primary care: UK BEAM Trial Team
BMJ 2004 329: 1381. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

United Kingdom back pain exercise and manipulation (UK BEAM) randomised trial: effectiveness of physical treatments for back pain in primary care: UK BEAM Trial Team
BMJ 2004 329: 1377. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Randomised controlled trial of physiotherapy compared with advice for low back pain: Helen Frost, Sarah E Lamb, Helen A Doll, Patricia Taffe Carver, and Sarah Stewart-Brown
BMJ 2004 329: 708. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Glazov, G., Schattner, P., Lopez, D., Shandley, K. (2009). Laser acupuncture for chronic non-specific low back pain: a controlled clinical trial. Acupuncture in Medicine 27: 94-100 [Abstract] [Full text]
(2006). Acupressure: Another Treatment for Low Back Pain. JWatch Psychiatry 2006: 11-11 [Full text]
(2006). Acupressure: Another Treatment for Low Back Pain. JWatch General 2006: 6-6 [Full text]