Is acupuncture effective in the treatment of fibromyalgia?
GROUND: We conducted this study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), report any adverse effects, and generate hypotheses for future investigation. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Manual Therapy Information System, the Cochrane registry, the University of Maryland Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Pain, the Centralized Information Service for Complementary Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine databases for the key words “acupuncture” and “fibromyalgia.” Conference abstracts, citation lists, and letters supplemented the search. We selected all randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials, or cohort studies of patients with FMS who were treated with acupuncture. Methodologic quality, sample characteristics, type of acupuncture treatment, and outcomes were extracted. Statistical pooling was not performed because of the differences in control groups. RESULTS: Seven studies (3 r
