Should you try acupuncture to relieve the pain of chronic prostatitis? Results from a recent study provide the answer.
Like other forms of chronic pain, chronic prostatitis is a complex condition with no simple solutions. Successful management depends on treating the original source of the pain as well as the neurological and psychosocial problems that often accompany it.
As a result, your doctor may prescribe several different types of medication. Some men also benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, which can help improve coping strategies and psychological well-being.
But what if you’ve tried medications and they haven’t helped? Should you give acupuncture a try?
Results from a small study in The American Journal of Medicine suggest that acupuncture may provide relief to men with chronic prostatitis. The study compared the potential benefits of acupuncture versus sham (inactive) treatments in 89 men who had symptoms of chronic prostatitis for three or more of the past six months and who had a score of 15 or higher on the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index.
The men were randomly assigned to receive two acupuncture treatments or two sham treatments a week for 10 weeks. The sham treatments were nearly identical to genuine acupuncture needle insertions except for the location and depth of placement.
True acupuncture was nearly twice as effective as the sham procedure in relieving chronic prostatitis symptoms. Moreover, patients treated with acupuncture were more than twice as likely as the men given the inactive treatment to experience long-term prostatitis relief. Few of the men experienced complete resolution of their symptoms.
This study supports findings from other trials showing a benefit from acupuncture for chronic prostatitis. More study is needed before the treatment can definitively be recommended, but if nothing else has worked for you, a trial of acupuncture might be worth considering.
