"Acupuncture may help relieve chronic back joint and shoulder pain according to a new review of the evidence  but some of its benefit is likely due to the placebo effect researchers concluded.  A patient lies on a bed as he undergoes acupuncture treatment at Beijings Capital Medical University Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital April  . REUTERSDavid Gray In an analysis of  studies they found people who got acupuncture typically reported more pain relief than those who didnt.  But patients treated with fake or sham acupuncture  using retracting needles that dont stick in the skin for example  estimated their pain at somewhere in between the other two groups suggesting that they also got some benefit from the procedure.  A doctor who has a patient in pain has a lot of options such as medications and physical or talk therapy said lead author Andrew Vickers from Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York.  This provides evidence that they would be justified in considering acupuncture he told Reuters Health.  Acupuncture has been controversial among doctors as a possible treatment for a range of conditions including chronic pain and fibromyalgia.  Some think it has potential as an addon or alternative to standard treatment while others argue any acupuncturerelated benefits are likely the result of hopeful patients getting treatment they strongly believe will help them.  That either means many of the three million Americans that get acupuncture every year are wasting their time  or others who forgo it are missing out on potential benefits Vickers said.  To try to help sort out which is the case he and his colleagues analyzed  studies they deemed to be highquality comparisons of acupuncture fake acupuncture and no treatment. Those trials included close to  patients in the United States and Europe with back and neck pain shoulder pain chronic headaches or joint pain due to osteoarthritis.  The researchers found that on average people treated with acupuncture reported a modest improvement in symptoms compared to those who had sham treatment and a larger effect compared to untreated patients.  They estimated in their Archives of Internal Medicine report that about  percent of patients had their symptoms cut in half with acupuncture compared to almost  percent of those treated with sham acupuncture and  percent with no acupuncturelike therapy.  A typical acupuncture session runs for about  and is often not covered by health insurance.  USUALLY NOT THE FIRST STEP  I have a long list of chronic pain patients coming to seek acupuncture said Jongbae Park head of Asian Medicine  Acupuncture Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.  Its usually not their first approach to address the condition he said  rather people seek acupuncture when traditional care fails to stop their pain.  Park who was not involved in the new study said acupuncture focuses on healing the underlying tissue injury that is causing pain rather than treating the pain itself as medications would.  I am a biased clinician Park told Reuters Health. But he added I would sincerely say more than  percent of my patients will see improvement.  Vickers said people who are considering acupuncture should first make sure their acupuncturist is appropriately qualified and licensed. In those cases he said acupuncture is very safe  and the main downsides are costs and the inconvenience of getting to a clinic.  SOURCE bit.lyMbBLbb httpbit.lyMbBLbb Archives of Internal Medicine online September  . Our StandardsThe Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. httpthomsonreuters.comenaboutustrustprinciples.html"