Chronic shoulder pain: comparison of acupuncture and conventional treatments

**_San Jose Care Resource Guide:_** Chronic shoulder pain can have many causes, the next link  [Chronic Shoulder Pain: Part I. Evaluation and Diagnosis][1]   will bring you to an detailed article from Kelton  M. Burnank et. al. on the the diagnosis of the various aspects of it.

*  rotator cuff disorders,
*  adhesive capsulitis,
*  shoulder instability,
*  shoulder arthritis

This article is quite technical: as the it  goes into the details of sub-categories of underlying illness or condition, , the complexities of the diagnosis of the causes of shoulder pain become apparent.

The classical treatments of such causes is described in another article by the same author.  [Chronic shoulder pain: part II. Treatment.][2]

Those treatments consist of

* Activity modification and analgesic medications
* physical therapy
*  Combined steroid and local anesthetic injections

Then: "…Symptoms that persist or worsen after six to 12 weeks of directed treatment should be referred to an orthopedic specialist…"

_Cure or long term relief does not seem  a given._

Then come a method apparently more benign: accupuncture.  Accupuncture seems to have  some good rate of success according to an article in JAAPA   [Chronic Shoulder Pain and Acupuncture Treatment][3]. This article concluded:

"… A treatment series of 15 acupuncture sessions produced signifi­cantly greater pain relief than sham acupuncture or conservative treatment in patients with chronic shoulder pain not due to osteoarthritis or rheuma­toid arthritis….."

**_Talk to your Doctor_**

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[1]: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2008/0215/p453.html
[2]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18326169
[3]: http://www.jaapa.com/acupuncture-effective-for-chronic-shoulder-pain/article/195655/
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