A study funded by the National Institutes of Health revealed acupuncture needling provided greater improvements in back pain–related disability at six months and 12 months compared with traditional medical care alone. Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata/Pexels
Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A new study demonstrating the effectiveness of acupuncture in relieving chronic lower back pain among seniors is fueling calls to expand Medicare coverage for the procedures amid the continuing struggle to reduce opioid abuse.
In a large-scale, randomized study published Friday in JAMA Open Network, researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and elsewhere found that acupuncture needling yielded greater improvements in back pain-related disability at six months and 12 months than traditional medical care alone.
The National Institutes of Health-funded "Backinaction" clinical trial demonstrated that acupuncture needling is an effective and safe treatment option offering "modest" but noticeable and long-lasting relief for older adults with chronic lower back pain -- the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting one-third of all U.S. adults over age 65, the study's authors said.
Chronic back pain has been identified as one of the key drivers of the opioid addiction and overdose crises, which took hold between 1999 and 2010 as U.S. opioid sales quadrupled. By 2015, more than half of regular opioid users reported they suffered from back pain and took the drugs despite their limited effectiveness against back pain.
