Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2002 Oct; 6(5): 379-83.

Pain treatment with acupuncture for patients with fibromyalgia.

Targino RA, Imamura M, Kaziyama HH, Souza LP, Hsing WT, Imamura ST.

Division of Physical Medicine, Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, University of SÃ£o Paulo School of Medicine, Ave. Giovanni Gronchi, 1106 San Paulo, Brazil. ucklrsu@ucl.ac.uk

Fibromyalgia is a chronic, painful musculoskeletal syndrome of unknown etiopathogenesis. In addition to medicamentous and physical and psychologic therapies, several other adjunct therapies have been used as alternatives in the attempt to obtain analgesia and decrease the symptoms that are characteristic of this problem. This article presents a literary review on the use of acupuncture as an adjunct or chief treatment for patients with fibromyalgia, comparing it with an ongoing clinical experience that has been carried out at Hospital das ClÃnicas in the city of SÃ£o Paulo. The results were found by applying traditional acupuncture, which demonstrated positive rates in the Visual Analogue Scale, myalgic index, number of tender points, and improvement in quality of life based on the SF-36 questionnaire.