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TY - JOUR AU - Yuan, Qi-ling AU - Wang, Peng AU - Liu, Liang AU - Sun, Fu AU - Cai, Yong-song AU - Wu, Wen-tao AU - Ye, Mao-lin AU - Ma, Jiang-tao AU - Xu, Bang-bang AU - Zhang, Yin-gang PY - 2016 DA - 2016/07/29 TI - Acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain: A meta-analysis and meta-regression of sham-controlled randomized clinical trials JO - Scientific Reports SP - 30675 VL - 6 IS - 1 AB - The aims of this systematic review were to study the analgesic effect of real acupuncture and to explore whether sham acupuncture (SA) type is related to the estimated effect of real acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain. Five databases were searched. The outcome was pain or disability immediately (≤1 week) following an intervention. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Meta-regression was used to explore possible sources of heterogeneity. Sixty-three studies (6382 individuals) were included. Eight condition types were included. The pooled effect size was moderate for pain relief (59 trials, 4980 individuals, SMD −0.61, 95% CI −0.76 to −0.47; P < 0.001) and large for disability improvement (31 trials, 4876 individuals, −0.77, −1.05 to −0.49; P < 0.001). In a univariate meta-regression model, sham needle location and/or depth could explain most or all heterogeneities for some conditions (e.g., shoulder pain, low back pain, osteoarthritis, myofascial pain and fibromyalgia); however, the interactions between subgroups via these covariates were not significant (P < 0.05). Our review provided low-quality evidence that real acupuncture has a moderate effect (approximate 12-point reduction on the 100-mm visual analogue scale) on musculoskeletal pain. SA type did not appear to be related to the estimated effect of real acupuncture. SN - 2045-2322 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30675 DO - 10.1038/srep30675 ID - Yuan2016 ER -