Acupuncture as an Adjunctive Therapy to the Pharmacological Treatment in Patients With Chronic Pain in Osteoarthritis of the Knee: a Three Armed Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial

The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy to pharmacological treatment of chronic pain due to knee osteoarthritis, as well as for, the improvement of physical functioning, reduction of stiffness, and improvement in quality of life. This is a 3-armed single-blinded randomized sham-controlled trial, comparing acupuncture along with pharmacological treatment, sham acupuncture including pharmacological treatment, and pharmacological treatment alone. One-hundred and twenty patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomly allocated to 3 groups. Group I was treated with etoricoxib, Group II was treated with acupuncture and etoricoxib, and Group III was treated with sham acupuncture and etoricoxib.