Does acupuncture help chronic low back pain?

For people with persistent pain, moderate‐certainty evidence showed that acupuncture provided a clinically significant level of immediate pain relief when compared with no treatment.

However, when acupuncture was compared with sham acupuncture or usual treatment, although still generating a statistically significant difference, low-certainty evidence showed the reduction in pain was not enough to be considered clinically significant.

The incidence of adverse events was generally similar between acupuncture and sham acupuncture or usual care. Therefore, acupuncture might be a safe treatment for people with chronic LBP.

In clinical practice, the decision to use acupuncture to treat chronic LBP may depend on treatment availability, cost and, importantly, participant or provider preference.