PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?

Response: Our findings replicated what had been seen among younger adult populations, namely, acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment. One potentially unexpected finding was that the pain-related benefits lasted many months (6-9 months) after the acupuncture treatment was concluded which is promising as pain-related medications both carry more safety risks for many older adults and are only effective while still actively taking the medications.

Also importantly, the study was conducted with Licensed acupuncturists (LAc’s) largely practicing in free standing community practices – the most accessible and highly trained clinicians/practitioners trained in acupuncture needling for pain management.

PainRelief.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Our findings replicated what had been seen among younger adult populations, namely, acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment. One potentially unexpected finding was that the pain-related benefits lasted many months (6-9 months) after the acupuncture treatment was concluded which is promising as pain-related medications both carry more safety risks for many older adults and are only effective while still actively taking the medications. Also importantly, the study was conducted with Licensed acupuncturists (LAc’s) largely practicing in free standing community practices – the most accessible and highly trained clinicians/practitioners trained in acupuncture needling for pain management.

PainRelief.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

• Response: A few things to emphasize. First, although the addition of maintenance sessions in this study showed a higher average benefit in reducing pain disability there was a lot of variation so not overall statistically significant difference from (better result than) the standard 3-month course of acupuncture.  However, maintenance acupuncture is often much more spread out and occurs over a longer period so there may be better ways to evaluate the benefit of maintenance acupuncture sessions.
  
• Second, while licensed acupuncturists practice in many communities and can often accept other health insurance, Medicare reimbursement as currently structured does not allow those in free-standing community practices (the manner in which most acupuncturists practice) to be reimbursed by Medicare for their services unless directly supervised by a conventional medical provider (physician, nurse practitioner or doctoral level clinical nurse specialist). More research to align treatment and reimbursement is needed.
  
• Finally, in congruence with CMS guidelines, this study was restricted to manual acupuncture needling and use of acupuncture anatomical points most strongly associated with previous low back pain acupuncture treatment protocols while there are other forms of needling (use of electroacupuncture and trigger point) that are commonly used they are not what was evaluated here.  Also “acupuncture” as delivered in everyday care settings is often a much broader practice including adjunctions to acupuncture needling including moxibustion, application of heat, Gua sha, Ba guan cupping, Tu ina, or herbal medicine.  Evaluation of the impact of using this more holistic composite of acupuncture would be another possible direction of future research.

PainRelief.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Any disclosures?

• Response: One other thing I’d emphasize, as it is a frequent question, is that recent research suggests that the impact of acupuncture is more than a placebo effect. Earlier studies often used sham acupuncture (acupuncture needles placed in non-acupuncture positions or pressure devices akin to acupressure in same locations) as a comparison and sometimes failed to show a difference between sham and regular acupuncture. What we now know more about is that these “sham” treatments still have a physiological effect (are not inert) so their use in studies may result in underestimating the outcomes of acupuncture in clinical settings.  It’s important to emphasize as people and even doctors often ask whether acupuncture effects are real or just a placebo. 
  
  
• No disclosures.

Citation:

DeBar LL, Wellman RD, Justice M, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(9):e2531348. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.31348
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2838793

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Last Updated on September 18, 2025 by PainRelief.com