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Most acupuncture studies in humans involve manual acupuncture and yield equivocal results or have methodological problems. A variation advocated by some acupuncturists is electroacupuncture, in which an electric current is applied to the needles. In this single-site study, researchers in California randomized 121 adults (mean age, 47) with low back pain of at least 6 months' duration to 12 sessions of electroacupuncture or a valid sham procedure during 6 weeks. Patients had baseline pain scores of at least 4 on a 10-point scale and no radiculopathy.
Compared with baseline pain scores, scores at 2 weeks after treatment were lower in both groups, with no significant difference between groups. On a validated functional-disability assessment, th…