A new study concludes that, “Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine modality that can be used in pediatric patients with fibromyalgia.” Fibromyalgia is a disorder involving widespread pain, increased sensation of pain upon pressure and associated symptoms such as exhaustion, insomnia and aching joints. The study followed patients with a history of juvenile fibromyalgia for a period of eight consecutive years. All patients had at least 11 weekly acupuncture sessions and evaluations were conducted before and after the acupuncture sessions. Evaluations measured musculoskeletal pain, VAS (pain visual analog scale), myalgic index and algometry. The result showed that acupuncture is effective for reducing the number of pain sensitive areas, improves the myalgic index and acupuncture demonstrated improvements in the pain visual analog scale. Associated symptoms of headaches, poor sleep and exhaustion also improved in the patients receiving acupuncture. Based on this study, the researchers recommend future controlled studies to confirm these findings.
Reference:
Acupuncture in adolescents with juvenile fibromyalgia. Marialda Hofling P. Dias, Elisabete Amaral, Hong Jin Pai, Daniela Terumi Y. Tsai, Ana Paola N. Lotito, Claudio Leone, Clovis Artur Silva. Ambulatório de Acupuntura da Unidade de Dor e Cuidados Paliativos e Unidade de Reumatologia Pediátrica do Instituto da Criança do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil.
