Fibromyalgia: Using needles against the pain
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Chronic pain, deep exhaustion - fibromyalgia is a disease that significantly affects the quality of life. But a Far Eastern treatment method could significantly reduce the symptoms: acupuncture.
Although fibromyalgia sufferers suffer from tremendous suffering, the possibilities of helping them are limited. Classic painkillers hardly work on them. Therapies such as exercise therapy, heat treatments, antidepressants and anticonvulsants also provide inadequate relief for most.
Effective needle treatment
Scientists working with Jorge Vas in Seville have now investigated whether acupuncture can help fibromyalgia patients. To do this, they had 153 patients treated with needles once a week for nine weeks. In half of them the needles were actually inserted into the traditional points, the other half of the patients received sham acupuncture.
To do this, the needles were each put in a tube that was glued to the acupuncture point. Neither the test subjects nor the acupuncturists could see whether the needle actually penetrated the skin or only into a cushion hidden in the tube, which merely transmitted a feeling of pressure.
Ten weeks after the start of therapy, the perceived pain in the actually piked group had decreased by 41 percent. In the group of sham acupuncture patients, it was significantly less at 27 percent. Acupuncture was also able to alleviate fatigue and depressive symptoms significantly better than placebo. Even one year after nine weeks of therapy, patients were still benefiting from the treatment.
Needles Better Than Medication?
Even more: The effectiveness was even higher than that which previous studies had certified various drugs. Including the anticonvulsant pregabalin, which is administered for nerve pain, epilepsy or anxiety disorders, or the active ingredient duloxetine, an antidepressant from the group of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), sometimes worked less well than the needles.
Enigmatic disease
In Germany, it is estimated that more than two million people suffer from fibromyalgia, also known as soft tissue rheumatism. For a long time, the patients were regarded as "imaginary sick": An organic cause of the constant pain, the sensitivity to pressure at special points (tender points) and the pronounced exhaustion, fears and depressive symptoms could not be identified for many years. Among other things, inflammatory rheumatic processes and wear and tear are ruled out as causes. The most likely hypothesis is a disorder of pain processing.
It was not until 2013 that researchers at the University of Würzburg discovered changes in certain nerve cells in the muscle tissue of fibromyalgia patients. This finally invalidated the assumption that fibromyalgia was a psychologically conditioned condition - a great emotional relief for those affected. (cf)
Source: Jorge Vas et al .: Acupuncture for fibromyalgia in primary care: a randomized controlled trial Press Release, 1,2, Acupunct Med doi: 10.1136 / acupmed-2015-010950, Published Online First 15 February 2016
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