Journal article review of "Comparing Verum and Sham Acupuncture in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis"
In today's article we will critically review the following research paper: Comparing Verum and Sham Acupuncture in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis J Kim, SR Kim, H Lee, DH Nam J Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2019 (2019). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732586/ So what type of evidence is this article? The below image shows where this article ranks in the hierarchy of evidence: So this article comes under the second from the top: Other SR & Meta-Analyses What conclusion is made? The author concluded that " verum acupuncture is more effective than sham acupuncture for pain relief, improving sleep quality, and reforming general status in FMS post treatment. However, evidence that it reduces fatigue was not found." Are the conclusion’s justified by the data? It would appear that the they are justified due to the meta-analysis analysing 10 randomised controlled trials