Andrew Vickers and his team members from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA, have published their latest study in the Archives of Internal Medicine and the same says that acupuncture is much more effective in treating pains than a standard painkiller tab like placebo.

The statement is based on 29 trials reviewed by the team so as to test the effects of acupuncture. It has been told that patients who receive acupuncture tend to suffer less pain than the ones receiving sham controls for neck pain or any other chronic pain.

Nearly 17,922 people had participated in the trials and it was found neither no-acupuncture control, including avoiding acupuncture or specific drugs and doses or group education sessions, was that much effective. Nor was the sham acupuncture comprising retracting non-penetrating needles or needles inserted superficially was helping much.

Only acupuncture was scoring 0.23, 0.16 and 0.15 standard deviations i. e. lower than both the other methods when it comes to treating back pain or osteoarthritis or neck pain or even neck pain. “The analysis provides the most robust evidence to date that acupuncture is a reasonable referral option for patients with chronic pain", thus said the team.