Self-Administered Acupressure Alleviates Lower Back Pain

The use of acupressure can alleviate lower back pain symptoms, according to a recent study published in Pain Medicine.

“Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but instead of needles, pressure is applied with a finger, thumb or device to specific points on the body,” said Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine and lead author of the study in a press release. Prof. Murphy noted that chronic pain is difficult to manage and people with the condition tend incur additional symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disturbance and depression. “Better treatments are needed for chronic pain,” Murphy added. “Most treatments offered are medications, which have side effects, and in some cases, may increase the risk of abuse and addiction.”

In this pilot trial study, 67 patients were randomized into a six-week regimen of either relaxing acupressure, stimulating acupressure, or usual care. They measured participant fatigue using the Brief Fatigue Inventory, and pain was assessed by the Brief Pain Inventory. Moreover, sleep was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and reported disability was measured using the Roland Morris Scale.

According to intent-to-treat analysis using lineal models, the researchers observed positive improvement in pain in the two acupuncture groups (by 35-36%) juxtaposed to the usual care group. They also found that fatigue symptoms were enhanced in the stimulating acupressure group compared with usual care. Moreover, adverse events were minimal and when they did occur it was linked to the participants applying excessive pressure.

Lower back #pain? Self-administered #acupressure could help: study @umich https://t.co/60IDtHJCJn

— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) August 21, 2019

Promising Results

“Compared to the usual care group, we found that people who performed stimulating acupressure experienced pain and fatigue improvement and those that performed relaxing acupressure felt their pain had improved after six weeks,” Prof. Murphy said, before adding that: “We found no differences among the groups in terms of sleep quality or disability after the six weeks.”

Prof. Murphy feels this study highlights the benefits of a non-pharmacological treatment option that patients can easily perform on their own time while attaining optimal results. “Although larger studies are needed, acupressure may be a useful pain management strategy given that it is low risk, low cost and easy to administer,” Prof. Murphy stated.

“We also recommend additional studies into the different types of acupressure and how they could more specifically be targeted to patients based on their symptoms.”

Lower Back Pain? Self-Administered Acupressure Could Helphttps://t.co/4yTRlyd2RO#lowbackpain#acupressure pic.twitter.com/Xgx10ERhBI

— Andrea D. Furlan MD PhD PM&R (@adfurlan) August 22, 2019