What Is the Appropriate Acupuncture Treatment Schedule for Chronic Pain? Review and Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 1

Characteristics of the included randomized controlled trials.

Author	Year	Country	Clinical problem	Score	Sample Size (persons)	Scale	Duration of Each Treatment Session (mins)	Total Duration of Treatment (weeks)	Number of Treatment Sessions	Frequency (sessions/week)	DOSE (mins/week)	Real Treatment Pain Relief	Length of Follow-up 1 (week)	Real Follow-up Pain Relief	Length of Follow-up 2 (week)	Real Follow-up Pain Relief	Length of Follow-up 3 (week)	Real Follow-up Pain Relief
Lewis [30]	2017	Ireland	Shoulder pain	5	227	SPADI	30	6	6	1.00	30	-3.17	24	3.05	48	0.54
Karatay [13]	2017	Turkey	Fibromyalgia	5	75	VAS	30	4	8	2.00	60	29.74	4	38.50	12	36.04
Ugurlu [12]	2017	Turkey	Fibromyalgia	4	50	VAS	30	8	12	1.50	45	32.24	(-)
Naderinabi [26]	2017	Iran	Headache	4	150	VAS	unknown	12	30	2.50	unknown	15.34	(-)
Garrido [31]	2016	Spain	Shoulder pain	5	68	VAS	20	4	4	1.00	20	37.25	12	26.66
Vas [21]	2016	Spain	Fibromyalgia	5	164	VAS	20	9	9	1.00	20	16.33	15	8.37	39	17.68
Hadianfard [29]	2015	Iran	Arm (Carpal Tunnel)	3	50	VAS	20	4	8	2.00	40	11.48	(-)
Sahin [27]	2015	Turkey	Pelvis and hip	4	100	CPSI	20	6	6	1.00	20	16.25	2	18.27	10	19.17	18	25.83
MacPherson [23]	2015	UK	Neck Pain	3	517	NPQ	50	12	12	1.00	50	15.15	12	13.62	36	9.73
Aranha [18]	2015	Brazil	Myofascial pain	4	60	VAS	30	4	8	2.00	60	-1.63	4	3.71
Hinman [22]	2014	Australia	Knee Pain	4	282	WOMAC	20	12	9	0.75	15	5.07	36	11.10
Itoh [34]	2014	Japan	Shoulder pain	6	18	VAS	30	5	5	1.00	30	37.50	5	30.07	15	25.59
Chen [35]	2013	USA	Knee OA	6	214	WOMAC	20	9	12	1.33	27	56.78	14	63.57
Tobbackx [28]	2013	Belgium	Neck (Whiplash)	4	39	VAS	20	1 day	1	1.00	20	10.82	(-)
Weiss [24]	2013	Germany	Low Back Pain	3	143	SF-36	35	3	6	2.00	70	5.58	12	9.59
Sozen [16]	2013	Turkey	Headache	3	56	VAS	20	5	20	4.00	80	20.65	12	18.48
Hadianfard [19]	2012	Iran	Fibromyalgia	4	30	VAS	30	2	6	3.00	90	37.50	2	6.25	6	0.00	46	12.50
Itoh [36]	2012	Japan	Jaw	6	16	VAS	30	5	5	1.00	30	45.92	5	50.65
Miller [17]	2011	Israel	Knee OA	3	55	KSS	20	8	16	2.00	40	-4.36	4	-25.27
Molsberger [32]	2010	Germany	Shoulder pain	5	424	VAS	20	6	15	2.50	50	15.21	12	21.26
Cherkin [37]	2009	USA	Low Back Pain	6	638	SBS	18	7	10	1.43	26	-6.78	19	-4.57	45	-4.61
Lathia [33]	2009	USA	Headache (tension)	5	31	SPADI	30	6	12	2.00	60	no baseline	(-)
Inoue [25]	2009	Japan	Low Back Pain	5	26	VAS	1	4	4	1.00	1	46.34	2	48.28	4	47.93
Shen [20]	2009	Canada	Jaw	3	28	VAS	15	1 day	1	1.00	15	9.59	(-)

(-): no follow-up; knee OA: knee osteoarthritis.