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BMJ. 1992 November 21; 305(6864): 1249–1252. | PMCID: PMC1883744 |
Electroacupuncture in fibromyalgia: results of a controlled trial. C. Deluze, L. Bosia, A. Zirbs, A. Chantraine, and T. L. Vischer Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland. Abstract OBJECTIVE--To determine the efficacy of electroacupuncture in patients with fibromyalgia, a syndrome of unknown origin causing diffuse musculoskeletal pain. DESIGN--Three weeks' randomised study with blinded patients and evaluating physician. SETTING--University divisions of physical medicine and rehabilitation and rheumatology, Geneva. PATIENTS--70 patients (54 women) referred to the division for fibromyalgia as defined by the American College of Rheumatology. INTERVENTIONS--Patients were randomised to electroacupuncture (n = 36) or a sham procedure (n = 34) by means of an electronic numbers generator. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Pain threshold, number of analgesic tablets used, regional pain score, pain recorded on visual analogue scale, sleep quality, morning stiffness, and patient's and evaluating physician's appreciation. RESULTS--Seven of the eight outcome parameters showed a significant improvement in the active treatment group whereas none were improved in the sham treatment group. Differences between the groups were significant for five of the eight outcome measures after treatment. CONCLUSIONS--Electroacupuncture is effective in relieving symptoms of fibromyalgia. Its potential in long term management should now be studied. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (925K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References. These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article. - Buckelew SP. Fibromyalgia: a rehabilitation approach. A review. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 1989 Feb;68(1):37–42. [PubMed]
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