SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2025
Effects of acupuncture on musculoskeletal pain: an evidence map.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effect of acupuncture and moxibustion combined with core stabilization training on the function of transverse abdominal muscle and pelvic floor muscle in women with postpartum pelvic pain.Journal of traditional Chinese medicine = Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan · 2026Article
- On-site manual therapy for firefighters in Seoul: six-month utilization and outcome from a retrospective service analysis and web-based survey.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Article
- Review
- Data Mining of Acupuncture Prescriptions for Lateral Epicondylitis: A Literature-Based Analysis of Acupoint Patterns and Parameters.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Musculoskeletal pain is a leading cause of disability and reduced quality of life worldwide. Given the growing interest in complementary and alternative therapies, acupuncture has been widely explored as a potential treatment for alleviating musculoskeletal pain. This evidence map aimed to identify, describe, and summarize the current available evidence about acupuncture interventions on musculoskeletal pain. Methods: For this map, searches were conducted in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED), Web of Science, and Epistemonikos to identify systematic reviews (SRs) with meta-analysis published up to 23 August 2024. Included SRs were independently assessed for eligibility in pairs. The data from the eligible SRs were extracted and evaluated for methodological quality using AMSTAR 2. The findings were tabulated and mapped using bubble plots. Results: A total of 111 SRs fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were included in this evidence map. All of the SRs included manual acupuncture or electroacupuncture. Comparators included in SRs involved active comparators, inactive comparators, sham acupuncture, and no intervention. The included 111 SRs were categorized into 35 musculoskeletal pain conditions. The short-term effects of acupuncture showed a positive effect across most comparators in major musculoskeletal pain. All included SRs were rated low or critically low in terms of methodological quality. Conclusion: This evidence map demonstrated that acupuncture has favorable effects on major musculoskeletal disorders. Further improvements in the quality of evidence should be prioritized and more clinical trials on the acupuncture for treating musculoskeletal pain are needed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.