Table S1.

Reasons for excluded studies

Study	Reason for exclusion
Mist et al, 20181	Acupuncture vs education
Ma et al, 20182	Article in Chinese; not an RCT
AM et al, 20173	Dry needling vs cross tape
Iannuccelli et al, 20174	Not an RCT
Zucker et al, 20175	Secondary analysis of original article Harris et al, 200537
Li et al, 20166	Article in Chinese; acupuncture + moxibustion vs Western medicine
Disa et al, 20167	Acupuncture vs electro-acupuncture vs moxibustion
Yu et al, 20168	Article in Chinese; acupuncture + herbal medicine vs Western medicine
Weber et al, 20159	No acupuncture therapy
de Tommaso et al, 201410	Cross-over study; only ten patients
Casanueva et al, 201411	Dry needling vs medical treatment
Collazo et al, 201412	Article in Spanish; acupuncture vs moxibustion vs scalp acupuncture
Shao et al, 201313	Article in Chinese; data unusable
Collazo et al, 201314	Article in Spanish; acupuncture vs scalp acupuncture
Hadianfard et al, 201215	Different treatment period. Acupuncture group received therapy for 2 weeks and control group received fluoxetine orally for 8 weeks
Iannuccelli et al, 201216	Not an RCT
Collazo et al, 201217	Article in Spanish; acupuncture vs traditional Chinese dietary therapy
Itoh et al, 201018	Five acupuncture treatments vs ten acupuncture treatments
Jiang et al, 201019	Article in Chinese; acupuncture + cupping + Western medicine vs acupuncture + cupping vs Western medicine
Collazo et al, 201020	Article in Spanish; not an RCT
Li et al, 200921	Article in Chinese; lower Dan-Tian acupuncture vs conventional acupuncture
Zhao et al, 200922	Article in Chinese; moxibustion + Western medicine vs Western medicine
Targino et al, 200823	Acupuncture + tricyclic antidepressants + exercise vs tricyclic antidepressants + exercise
Harris et al, 200824	Data unusable; only ten patients
Sun, 200825	Article in Chinese; not an RCT
Li, 200726	Article in Chinese; not an RCT
Li et al, 200627	Article in Chinese; acupuncture + cupping + Western medicine vs vs Western medicine
Yao et al, 200628	Article in Chinese; not an RCT; data unusable
Harris et al, 200629	Secondary analysis of original article Harris et al, 200537
Guo et al, 200530	Data unusable
Wang et al, 200431	Article in Chinese; not an RCT
Wang et al, 200232	Article in Chinese; data unusable
Liu et al, 200233	Article in Chinese; did not meet ACR criteria
Zhang et al, 200134	Article in Chinese; data unusable
Sandberg et al,199935	Cross-over study; only ten patients
Sprott et al, 199836	Data unusable

Abbreviations: ACR, American College of Rheumatology; RCT, randomized controlled trial.