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On December 21, 2004, the Annals of Internal Medicine published the results of an NCCAM-funded study of acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee. The study team was led by Brian M. Berman, M.D., Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used medical procedures, having originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. The term acupuncture describes a family of procedures involving stimulation of anatomical points on the body by a variety of techniques. American practices of acupuncture incorporate medical traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. The acupuncture technique that has been most studied scientifically involves penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation.
The randomized clinical trial at the University of Maryland followed 570 participants for 6 months, making it the longest and largest study of acupuncture to date. In the study, 190 of the participants received acupuncture treatment and 191 received a "sham" acupuncture procedure that the team had developed and tested in earlier research. A third group (189) attended an educational program developed by the Arthritis Foundation. All participants could continue to use some conventional care for osteoarthritis, such as certain anti-inflammatory medicines, if they so chose.
