Chronic shoulder pain is the most common type of musculoskeletal pain. This pain is caused by rotator cuff strain or tear, biceps tendinitis, subacromial bursitis, glenohumeral osteoarthritis, impingement syndrome, and adhesive capsulitis.
Acupuncture is an effective and safe therapy for chronic shoulder pain.
A German Randomized Acupuncture Trial for chronic shoulder pain consisted of 424 outpatients with chronic shoulder pain (CSP) last over 6 weeks showed that acupuncture significantly reduced the shoulder pain and improved shoulder movement at 3 months post-treatment and directly after the end of treatment.
A clinical trial studied acupuncture on shoulder pain. The participants are patients aged from 25 to 83 years with shoulder pain. At six month follow-up after treatment the acupuncture group showed a significantly greater improvement in pain intensity compared with the control group. This suggested that acupuncture is an effective long-term treatment for patients with shoulder pain.
Some research studied acupuncture points used for shoulder pain. Some acupuncture points are more effective than others.
References
Jaung-Geng Lin, et al Am J Transl Res. 2022; 14(3): 1469–1481.
Albrecht F Molsberger et al Pain 2010 Oct;151(1):146-154.
Juan Antonio Guerra de Hoyos et al Pain 2004 Dec;112(3):289-298.
Itoh K et al J Acupunct Meridian Stud. 2014;7:59–64.
Wang KF et al A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Chin J Integr Med. 2016;22:467–472.
