Trial reportThe journal of pain2026
Long-lasting effect of penetrating acupuncture among responders: Double-blind RCT of acupuncture for vulvodynia.
Trial report in The journal of pain, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Response to the comment on "Long-lasting effect of penetrating acupuncture among responders: Double-blind RCT of acupuncture for vulvodynia".The journal of pain · 2026Article
- Effect of Acupuncture for Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: Study Protocol for a Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 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
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Vulvodynia, vulvar pain of unknown etiology, lasting 3 months or longer, affects 7% of American women, and has no consistently effective treatment. We aimed to test the efficacy of acupuncture on vulvar pain and dyspareunia and explore the duration of the effect in a double-blind randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for vulvodynia. 89 women, 19-62 years old (mean 30.2 ± 8.3), 70% White, 20% Hispanic; 91% completed a 13-needle, 10-session standardized acupuncture protocol using double-blind acupuncture needles. Average Pain Intensity of vulvar pain (API, 0-10 scale) and dyspareunia (Female Sexual Function Index) were measured at baseline and after the 10th treatment. Participants with a clinically important post-treatment improvement reported weekly Tampon Test scores (0-10), a measure of provoked vulvar pain, until they returned to baseline. Percentage of responders was similar: acupuncture 58%, placebo 57%; no significant differences were found between acupuncture and placebo groups on API or dyspareunia upon completion of treatments. Responders showed a consistently higher rate of return to baseline pain during the 12-week post-treatment follow-up in the placebo group compared to the acupuncture group (hazard ratio: 2.72, 95% CI: 1.13-6.54). Effects of acupuncture on vulvodynia may have been underestimated because of the strong placebo response from the skin-touch placebo needles. Among responders, the relatively large placebo effect did not persist for as many participants as the therapeutic effect of penetrating acupuncture during the 12-week follow up. Findings indicate investigations into the effects among acupuncture responders and non-responders are warranted. Findings also merit larger, pragmatic trials. PERSPECTIVE: Double-blind RCT of acupuncture for vulvodynia tested vulvar pain and dyspareunia and explored the duration of effect. Penetrating acupuncture and skin-touch placebo needle groups had pain reduction, not significantly different between groups. Pain reduction lasted longer for significantly more responders in the penetrating acupuncture vs. skin-touch placebo groups.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.