Acupuncture's long-term effects on knee osteoarthritis now need to be tested, write the researchers. They included Claudia Witt, MD, of Berlin's Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis; it causes degeneration of body joints. It develops when cartilage, the lining of joints that allows smooth movement between opposing bones, starts to break down. Swelling and inflammation in the affected joint are a major cause of pain and disability. Osteoarthritis most often affects the fingers, hips, knees, feet, or spine.

Year-Long Study, 2-Month Treatment

Witt's study lasted one year. Acupuncture treatments only lasted for eight weeks.

Some patients got 12 sessions of real acupuncture over eight weeks. Others got fake acupuncture treatments.

The fake acupuncture didn't place or use needles correctly. Patients were told that two different types of acupuncture were being tested. They didn't know that one procedure was phony.

For comparison, a third group didn't get either treatment right away. Instead, they went on an eight-week waitlist for real acupuncture.

All patients were also allowed to take pain-relieving drugs during the study. Treatment for osteoarthritis is based on reducing pain and inflammation using anti-inflammatory medications and physical therapy.

Short-Term Results

Patients completed surveys about knee pain and functional disability eight weeks, six months, and one year into the study.

Real acupuncture came out on top in the first survey. Patients getting real acupuncture had bigger improvements in knee pain and function than the other two groups. Those receiving real acupuncture treatment reported significantly lower scores on pain and disability compared with participants in the other groups.

At eight weeks, about half of the real acupuncture group had improved their scores by at least 50%.

The same level of improvement was reported by 28% of those getting fake acupuncture and 3% of those on the waitlist, write the researchers.

Longer View

Those patterns didn't hold in the follow-up surveys.

At six months and one year, there weren't significant differences between the groups, write the researchers.

Those on the waitlist eventually got real acupuncture. They followed the same pattern as the first real acupuncture group -- short-term improvement that faded after treatment ended.

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