A group acupuncture program may represent a safe, tolerated and effective management strategy for women with fibromyalgia by providing greater improvement in global symptom impact, pain, and fatigue compared with education, according to a randomized study published in Pain Medicine.

The study included 30 adult women with fibromyalgia and a mean visual analogue scale pain score ≥5, representing moderate to severe pain levels. Investigators randomly assigned study participants to receive 20 treatments of group acupuncture (n=16) or group education (n=14) over a 10-week period.

Group acupuncture consisted of 40-minute sessions of acupuncture twice a week using the traditional Chinese medicine and group education was conducted through group discussions providing information on fibromyalgia etiology, demographics, and pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic management strategies.

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