Safety of Acupuncture Treatments for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults
CompletedNCT03850717
View the official record on ClinicalTrials.gov Recruiting status changes often. Contact the study team listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, and talk to your doctor before joining a study.
This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
Acupuncture, along with other complementary and integrative treatments, is commonly used as a complementary or integrative therapy when treating a multitude of pain complaints, including chronic low back pain(CLBP). It has been practiced as a non-pharmacological therapy in the United States over one hundred years. Integrative pain management pilot programs have demonstrated impressive reductions in medications use, emergency room visits, and annual costs of healthcare. In fact, CLBP is one of the most common conditions treated in an acupuncturist's daily schedule. Based on acupuncturists' practice, CLBP has accounted for about 12% of patient visits in recent years. Most CLBP patients who come to acupuncturists' clinic are older adults. Investigators will retrospectively check the safety of acupuncture, i.e.side effects or adverse effects of acupuncture during treatments of CLBP in older adults in past 5 years.
Study details
- Official title
- Retrospective Study on Safety of Acupuncture Treatments for Chronic Low Back Pain in 65 Years and Older in an Acupuncture Clinic From 2013 to 2018.
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Sponsor
- McLean Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, PLC
- Start date
- 2013-12-31
- Primary completion
- 2018-12-30
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 65 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- United States
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * Age: 65-80 years old. * CLBP is defined as a back pain problem that has persisted for at least 3 months or has resulted in pain on at least half the days in the past 6 months. * A minimum pain intensity score of 4 out of 10 on a visual analog scale (0 = no pain, 10 = most severe pain); * ability of the participant to fully understand the trial procedure and the risks involved, communicate with the examiner, and comply with the protocol; * provision of written informed consent for participation. Exclusion Criteria: * Age: younger than 65. * Pain mainly at legs; * a history of spinal surgery; * hip osteoarthritis; progressive neurological deficit or severe psychiatric or psychological disorders; * serious spinal disorders, such as metastatic cancer, vertebral fracture, spinal infection, and inflammatory spondylitis; * other contraindications for treatment, such as clotting disorders, use of anticoagulants or chemotherapy medications, and seizure disorders; * presence of a device that could be affected by electromagnetic fields, such as a pacemaker; * use of medications that could affect the trial results, such as corticosteroids and anticonvulsants, within the last week; * participation in other clinical trials; * ineligibility judged by a researcher.
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03850717