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The German Randomized Acupuncture Trial for chronic shoulder pain (GRASP)
included 424 outpatients with chronic shoulder pain (CSP) of 6 weeks
or more. Patients were randomly assigned to receive Chinese acupuncture,
sham acupuncture (sham) or conventional conservative orthopedic treatment
(COT). The patients did not know what type of acupuncture they received
and were treated by 31 office-based orthopedists trained in acupuncture;
all received 15 treatments over 6 weeks. Percentages of responders three
months after the end of treatment were true acupuncture 65%, sham 24%,
and COT 37%; directly after treatment percentages of responders were
true acupuncture 68%, sham 40%, and COT 28%. The results are significant
for true acupuncture over sham and COT for both end points. There was
greater improvement of shoulder mobility (abduction and arm-above-head
test) for the true acupuncture group versus the control group immediately
after treatment and after 3 months. The trial indicates that Chinese
acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic shoulder pain.
Molsberger AF, Schneider T, Gotthardt H, Drabik A. Ruhr-University
Bochum, Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, Germany. German Randomized
Acupuncture Trial for chronic shoulder pain (GRASP) – a pragmatic,
controlled, patient-blinded, multi-centre trial in an outpatient care
environment. Pain. 151(1):146-54, 2010, Oct
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