Treating fibromyalgia with acupuncture based on pattern differentiation: systematic review

Abstract

Lack of pattern differentiation for acupuncture treatment of patients with fibromyalgia in clinical trials may compromise the indication of acupoints because of the limited and subjective relationship between eastern and traditional pathophysiology. This study aims to investigate if clinical trials not relying in pattern differentiation for prescription of acupoints present favorable results for pain management. A systematic review was conducted with qualitative analysis in PubMed database with ‘acupuncture’ (“acupuntura”) and ‘fibromyalgia’ (“fibromialgia”) as keywords. Sixteen studies were identified, from which four randomized clinical trials were included. Three studies reported the prescription of acupoints, but none of them elaborated their prescription based on the Four Examination methods. Favorable results were observed regarding pain management even in the absence of pattern differentiation. However, the small quantity of studies limited the generalization of this observation. Further high-quality, randomized clinical trials using pattern differentiation as a factor analysis are warranted to establish the utility of such a diagnostic procedure for prescription of acupoints for patients with fibromyalgia.