. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Oct 22.

Published in final edited form as: Arch Intern Med. 2012 Oct 22;172(19):1444–1453. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3654

Table 1. Characteristics of included studies (Trial level information is provided in the Appendix).

The table includes the 31 trials identified in the initial search plus the four recently identified trials for which summary data were used.

Indication n=35	Pain Type	Control group	Primary Outcome Measure	Time point
Chronic headache n=7	Migraine n=2^{13, 18} Tension-type headache n=3^{14, 16, 34} Both n=2^{21, 53}	Sham n=4^{13, 14, 16, 18} No acupuncture control n=6 Ancillary care^* n=1³⁴ Usual care^{^} n=4^{16, 18, 21, 53} Guidelined care^# n=1¹³	Severity score n=2^{34, 53} Days with headache n=1¹⁴ Migraine days n=3^{13, 16, 21} Days with moderate to severe pain n=1¹⁸	1 month n=1³⁴ 3 months n=3^{16, 18, 21} 6 months n=2^{13, 14} 12 months n=1⁵³
Non-specific Musculoskeletal Pain (back and neck) n=15	Back n=10^{12, 15, 19, 24, 28, 35–37, 54, 55} Neck n=5^{20, 31, 32, 56, 57}	Sham n=10^{12, 15, 28, 31, 32, 35–37, 54, 57} No acupuncture control n=9 Ancillary care^* n=1³⁵ Usual care^{^} n=6^{15, 19, 20, 24, 28, 56} Non specific advice^§ n=1⁵⁵ Guidelined care^# n=1¹²	VAS n=7^{15, 31, 32, 35–37, 57} Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire n=3^{28, 54, 55} Neck Pain and Disability n=1²⁰ Hannover Functional Questionnaire n=1¹⁹ Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire n=1⁵⁶ Von Korff pain score n=1¹² SF36 Bodily pain n=1²⁴	1 month n=4^{31, 32, 36, 57} 2 months n=3^{15, 28, 55} 3 months n=5^{19, 20, 26, 29, 35, 54, 56} 6 months n=2^{12, 37} 24 months n=1²⁴
Osteoarthritis n=9		Sham n=6^{11, 17, 25, 26, 33, 58} No acupuncture control n=8 Ancillary care^* n=2^{11, 25, 26} Usual care^{^} n=4^{17, 22, 29} Non specific advice^§ n=2^{33, 59}	Oxford Knee Score questionnaire n=1⁵⁹ Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) n=2^{17, 22} WOMAC pain subscore n=6^{11, 25, 26, 29, 33, 58}	2 months n=2^{17, 59} 3 months n=4^{22, 26, 29, 58} 6 months n=3^{11, 25, 33}
Shoulder pain n=4		Sham n=4^{27, 30, 60, 61} No acupuncture control n=1 Usual care^{^} n=1²⁷	Constant-Murley-score n=2^{30, 61} VAS n=2^{27, 60}	1 month n=2^{30, 61} 6 months n=2^{27, 60}

Ancillary care: Program of care received by both acupuncture and non acupuncture groups (e.g. trial comparing physiotherapy plus acupuncture to physiotherapy alone)

^{^}

Usual care: Protocol did not specify treatments received in control group (e.g. trials with `waiting list control’)

^§

Non specific advice: Patients in control group receive general advice and support (‘attention control’).

Guidelined care: Patients in control group received care according to national guidelines