Acupuncture May Reduce Post-Stroke Shoulder Pain

Acupuncture may relieve shoulder pain after a stroke, according to a new study.

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting needles into specific points along the body as a means to treat disease and relieve pain. Traditional practitioners claim that, by manipulating a system of meridians believed to course across the body, acupuncture can restore the balanced flow of qi, thus healing the body of malady. The term acupuncture also refers to the entire theory and practice of one of the major modalities of Chinese Medicine.

Based on acupuncture's long history of use as well as the available research, both the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified many conditions for which it may be recommended. There is reasonable scientific evidence supporting acupuncture for several indications, including various types of pain and several types of nausea and vomiting.

In a new study, researchers combined data from seven different studies published in China. In all the studies, participants were experiencing post-stroke shoulder pain. All participants were randomly placed in one of two groups. Acupuncture was performed on the experimental group. The control group underwent another type of rehabilitative therapy, such as exercise.

Data analysis showed that acupuncture was an effective method of reducing post-stroke shoulder pain. The researchers suggested that the combination of exercise and acupuncture is appropriate for rehabilitation following a stroke. More research on this topic is warranted.

For more information about acupuncture, please visit Natural Standard's Health & Wellness database.

Comments

[nh]

The fact that acupuncture can relieve shoulder pain should not seem surprising. I hurt my shoulder many years ago and I still have lingering pain every now and then. I have tried physical therapy and other options but none have worked to well. I am happy I read this article because it reminded me that there are alternative treatments out there to potentially help me and others with certain types of pain.

[ss]

I have seen acupuncture working effectively in shoulder pain eventhough the cause wasn't stroke. I came across a patient with shoulder pain during my acupuncture site visit through Natural Standard. This patient told me that within ten minutes into her treatment, her shoulder pain went away. She complained about the side effects from the traditional medicines and was happy with her decision to choose acupuncture therapy.

[ee]

I have always thought that acupuncture was a waste of time and that it is just a form of deferring pain from the actual site for a few minutes; however, Natural standard gives it an evidence grade of A for chronic pain and osteoarthritis. I wonder how long the pain relief effects last and how soon before a patient will need another session for pain relief?

Also, I understand that after every acupuncture session, the patient is given an herbal drink to consume at home, how does one know if the pain relief effect is from the herbal drink instead of the needles?

[Christina Wong]

I am glad to see that there is more research being done on acupuncture. I know family members who provide acupuncture treatments, and they claim that it helps many of their patients with pain relief. I never thought acupuncture could be used for shoulder pain due to a stroke. I'm excited to hear more about future studies on alternative medicines like acupuncture!

[weezy]

Honestly, I've always assumed acupuncture was a crock. Although, that's probably not really fair for me to say because I've never experienced it, researched it, or talked to anyone that has done it. This article at least makes it sound like people have benefited from it so that makes me want to know more about it and how it works exactly. Luckily, I am supposed to go on a site visit where acupuncture is performed.....what a perfect opportunity to find out more about it.

[Marina]

I am curious about the long term effectiveness of acupuncture. I remember someone in my school was discussing this topic and saying that it works well but it will not work as well if used over long periods of time. I am wondering if there is any validity to that statement? Skimming through some of the trials on the Natural Standard evidence discussion, I'm seeing significant efficacy in trials upto 26 weeks. But what about longer-term than that?

[Carla]

I tried acupuncture before and it didn't even hurt a little bit. The needs are really, really small. I would definitely try it again, especially for pain but also for allergies.

[AS]

During my rotation here at Natural Standard I recently went on a site visit to an acupuncturist who started her practice to help people with HIV/AIDS deal with side effects and pain. There is so much evidence for the use of acupuncture in multiple disease states. I hope that clinical studies continue to be done, because this could be a great alternative to drugs which often have numerous side effects.

[Maryjoy Lepak]

It is positive to hear about modalities that improve quality of life - especially regarding stroke when patients are left facing life-long repercussions of an event. Acupuncture is one of those modalities in which Natural Standard provides an updated monograph to inform consumers about the effectiveness of this therapy. Natural Standard provides a list of therapeutic uses of acupuncture and provides evidence grades based on the Jadad score. While the evidence may be conflicting in certain areas, it is worth researching through these studies to see where acupuncture may have the best benefit for patients.

[MK]

Acupuncture has never been something that I have felt willing to try, but after reading this article and others, it seems that it may be very helpful for some people. Its nice to know there are other options for people with pain other than taking painkillers. Personally, I am scared of needles. But from what I have heard about acupuncture is that the needles are so small that you cant feel them, which makes me more likely to try this some day. I would love to read more articles about this and see what other disease states it will be studied in.

[anonymous]

I think it’s interesting that they found that acupuncture combined with exercise reduced shoulder pain. I looked a little more into the 7 studies that were included in the review and it seemed most of them compared acupuncture and rehabilitation exercises with rehabilitation exercise alone. Some compared with drug treatment and another with acupuncture alone. I think that by using the exercises alone as a control group that it helps to show the added benefit of acupuncture. I would be interested to see more research that looked at other possible benefits in other parts of the body or studies that looked at acupuncture and shoulder pain after something like surgery. It seems there is a lot of potential benefit in this area!

[ron]

What a great blog! I recently went on two acupuncture site visit, and the topic of post stroke treatment came up in both of them. Both the Lac said that they have many patients who come in after strokes, to help them gain strength and motion in the area that were effected by the stroke. It also amazing that something so harmless can have such beneficial effects!

[NA]

This is exciting news as this gives patients an additional option to treat their post-stroke shoulder pain. It amazes me how many different ailments acupuncture can address. Following a stroke, patients may be put on several prescription medications that may cause unwanted side effects. Use of acupuncture or other types of CAM therapies could reduce the risk of side effects from medications and/or the risk of additional drug interactions.

[Marina]

One little gem that I learned recently: the comparative effectiveness database is one of the most upto-date of the databases on Natural Standard, since it's auto-updated. It's the one to go to for most current evidence grades.

Post-stroke shoulder pain is very specific and only has an evidence grade of C. I also found in Natural Standard, that TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) can be used for this condition.

[Nicole]

I was just hearing about this study this morning at my site visit at an acupuncture clinic. More and more data is coming out on the use of acupuncture in various disease states. I heard that a few managed care organizations are running programs where employees are eligible to receive acupuncture treatments free of charge and year after year it saves the company money due to deceased ED visits and decreased medication use. Several CAM treatments are lacking solid data but I feel like acupuncture is one of therapies that is thoroughly being research and integrated into modern practice.

[Carla]

Four of the seven studies in this review looked at a combination of acupuncture and other rehabilitation therapies. This may be good for external validity if acupuncture is always paired with rehabilitation treatment in practice. Natural Standard gives acupuncture an evidence grade of A for chronic pain which is consistent with what I have heard from friends who use it.

[anonymous]

I've met many people that swear by acupuncture, that it relieved this, relieved that, healed this. I've always had my doubts about the actual efficacy of acupuncture, but it seems incredible that it can do so much. I've never tried it myself and I don't know if I ever would. My mom had acupuncture done on our dog and she swears it helped him and that she saw a difference. Does anyone know if insurances cover acupuncture? Has anyone on here had acupuncture? What are your experiences with it?

[AS]

This is an interesting study. It is very difficult to have a standard randomized control study with many of the Complementary and Alternative modalities since in this instance the study participant would likely know whether or not they were being stuck with needles. Acupuncture does however have a substantial amount of scientific evidence behind it for the use in multiple diseases. For example NS shows that it has grade A evidence for osteoarthritis, chronic pain, and post-operative pain. It's great to see that more research continues to be done to examine the benefits of this CAM therapy and hopefully as information continues to grow more insurance companies will recognize the benefits of acupuncture and other CAM therapies and offer them as covered benefits to their members.

[LO]

I think the idea of acupuncture is fascinating. I'm glad that there are trials being done on it, though I would think that blinding would be difficult, if not impossible, especially in the trials that compared acupuncture to exercise. It's also great that the NIH is considering it an appropriate therapy to be recommended for certain disease states. Personally, I feel that this gives it more credibility and makes me want to learn more!

[anonymous]

Acupuncture seems to be growing in popularity. It seems that patients are turning to this practice more frequently than ever to aid in their various diseases. It would be neat to see a study published within the United States in order to limit the variable differences in the population, culture and acupuncture practices. This finding from this article though is definitely interesting. Personally, I think I would be too nervous to try acupuncture because I do not like needles.

[Jessica]

I had no idea that shoulder pain was so common following a stroke! Even though only 7 studies were eligible for inclusion in this meta analysis, the conclusions point in the direction of doing more research. Acupuncture and electroacupunture have shown to be effective for many types of pain, so I am not too surprised that it may also be effective for post-stroke pain.

[ams]

Cool post! I helped give a presentation on osteoarthritis a couple weeks ago and one of the modalities I used the NS site to research was acupuncture. Acupuncture has an NS evidence grade of B for osteoarthritis--I wonder what grade it would receive for post-stroke shoulder pain once research has been analyzed. The process of recovering from a stroke is persistent and challenging for many people. Anything that can help individuals that have suffered a stroke would be great. Acupuncture is especially nice because while much of stroke rehab is physical and/or occupational therapy, I bet it would be a good break for the patient to have a treatment that's received passively rather than having to work during said treatment (which is certainly important when a person is trying to regain certain physical and cognitive abilities). Perhaps relieving this shoulder pain could even have positive effects on physical therapy, too ex. the patient is able to progress through a rehab program at an increased pace and get as close to pre-stroke level of functioning as possible, as quickly as possible. I'm excited to hopefully hear more about further studies for this application of acupuncture!