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Effectiveness Of Acupuncture On Patients With Chronic Pain Essay

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This section presents the evidence identified through a search and review of literature related to the effectiveness of acupuncture to reduce pain medication use in the patient with chronic pain. The literature contains nine articles, dated between 2000 and 2016 (Sun, Hsieh, Cheng, Hung, Li, Yen, & Huang, 2010; Itoh, Katsumi, Hirota, & Kitakoji, 2007; Weiß, Quante, Xue, Muche, & Reuss-Borst, 2013; Cherkin, Eisenberg, Sherman, Barlow, Kaptchuk, Street, & Deyo, 2001; Yun, Shao, Zhang, He, Xiong, Zhang, & Yan, 2012; Kung, Chen, Chaung, Chou, Tsai, & Hwang, 2001; Giles & Muller, 1999; Muller & Giles, 2005). The studies were implemented in various settings such as the multidisciplinary spinal pain unit of Townsville’s General Hospital, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Department of Chengdu General Military Hospital, inpatient rehabilitation clinic in Germany, and the Department of Neurology at Nantou Hospital with sample sizes ranged from 29 to 282 patients. One common limitation of the studies was the small sample size, which might not be able to represent the whole population. Two studies also recruited volunteers for their studies, which might result in bias since the volunteers might have higher expectations for the result. In addition, the studies were not consistent with the method of sham acupuncture, which might produce some therapeutic effect in the studies. The strength of the studies was randomized controlled trials that might be able to eliminate population
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