Robust evidence supports the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of chronic pain. An individual patient data meta-analysis incorporating 39 randomized controlled trials and data from 20,827 participants demonstrated that acupuncture produced statistically significant improvements in pain and function across multiple chronic pain conditions, including nonspecific musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, and shoulder pain, when compared with both sham acupuncture and no-treatment controls (Vickers et al., 2018). Treatment effects were sustained over time, with approximately 85% of the analgesic benefit maintained at one-year follow-up. Importantly, the authors concluded that the observed pain reductions could not be attributed solely to placebo effects, as variations in effect size were largely driven by differences in control group interventions rather than characteristics of acupuncture treatment itself. These findings support acupuncture as a clinically effective and durable therapeutic option for chronic pain management.

Vickers, A. J., Vertosick, E. A., Lewith, G., MacPherson, H., Foster, N. E., Sherman, K. J., Linde, K., & Acupuncture Trialists’ Collaboration. (2018). Acupuncture for chronic pain: Update of an individual patient data meta-analysis. The Journal of Pain, 19(5), 455–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.11.005