Efficacy of Acupuncture, Intravenous Lidocaine, and Diet in the Management of Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Almutairi NM, Hilal FM, Bashawyah A, Dammas FA, Yamak Altinpulluk E, Hou JD, Lin JA, Varrassi G, Chang KV, Allam AES · Healthcare · 2022 June 23

DOI 10.3390/healthcare10071176

Objective

This network meta-analysis aimed to assess the efficacy of acupuncture, intravenous lidocaine, and diet compared with other comparators such as physiotherapy and sham/placebo in fibromyalgia patients.

Conclusions

The acupuncture showed a significant effect in the management of fibromyalgia patients. It reduced pain, depression, and enhanced the quality of life. While physiotherapy showed a significant improvement in the quality of life only. In contrast, intravenous lidocaine and diet showed no significant differences when compared with sham/placebo.

Critical Appraisal

Published research can offer valuable insights, but a paper’s conclusions may go beyond what its results support. Critical appraisal examines the methods, findings and limitations to clarify what can reasonably be concluded—and what remains uncertain.

This article has not yet been critically appraised by the Research Hub.

Learn more about Critical Appraisal

Insights

Acupuncture showed a significant effect in the management of fibromyalgia patients. It reduced pain, depression, and enhanced quality of life.

There were 23 included RCTs. The total sample size was 1409 patients. Compared with the sham/placebo group, the network analysis showed the highest improvement in the quality of life in the acupuncture group standardized mean difference, and then in the physiotherapy group. For the pain, there was a significant reduction with acupuncture, compared with sham/placebo. Regarding depression, it showed a significant reduction with acupuncture compared with sham/placebo. Finally, for stiffness, it showed no significant differences in the stiffness between acupuncture, fluoxetine, and physiotherapy compared with sham/placebo.