CAM Neck Pain Treatment Research

Acupuncture is often held to much higher standards when it comes to trials than what passes for positive results in the pharmaceutical based studies.  The study below confirms both that acupuncture is effective for neck pain as well as discusses some of the common critiques and problems with studying acupuncture.  

With regards to neck pain the authors state:  "From our results, it can be clearly seen that acupuncture did indeed have a large effect. It is an effective treatment. Patients, on average, experienced in the region of a 60% reduction in pain from baseline scores in both treatment groups. A clinical improvement of this magnitude is significant and certainly shows a large “effect,” which, if this were a drug trial, would probably be a much-sought-after improvement."

White, Peter J. and Lewith, George: Acupuncture for Chronic Mechanical Neck Pain (Reply to Critique), Annals of Internal Medicine