Pain Changes Induced by Acupuncture in Single Body Areas in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Results from an Open-Label Pragmatic Study

Fibromyalgia is a complex condition characterized primarily by chronic widespread pain, accompanied by intense fatigue and sleep disturbances. Although there is scientific evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture in treating this syndrome, until now it was not known which specific body regions responded best to this type of therapy. This knowledge is fundamental for optimizing treatments and enabling more personalized approaches for each patient.

The present study had as its main objective to investigate how acupuncture affects pain in different body areas of people with fibromyalgia. To do so, the researchers conducted a pragmatic, open-label study, without a control group, involving 96 adult patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia according to specific medical criteria. All participants had severe symptoms of the disease and had failed or not tolerated conventional pharmacologic treatments. The protocol consisted of eight weekly sessions of manual acupuncture, always performed by the same experienced practitioner, using a standardized formula of specific points based on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The technique used included eight acupuncture points consistently applied to all participants: three points on the lower limbs, one on the upper limbs, two in the abdominal region, and two on the head. Each session lasted 30 minutes, totaling 240 minutes of treatment per patient. To evaluate outcomes, the researchers used a specific scale that mapped pain in 16 different regions of the body, in addition to assessing fatigue and sleep quality before and after treatment.

The results demonstrated significant and broad improvements. All 16 body areas evaluated showed pain reduction, with 12 of them showing statistically significant improvements. The regions with the best results were the abdomen and forearms, while the areas with the smallest improvements included the neck, chest, left buttock, and right thigh. It is interesting to note that even body regions that did not directly receive needles, such as the lumbar region, also showed improvements, suggesting a systemic effect of acupuncture.

In addition to pain, participants also reported significant improvements in fatigue and sleep quality.

These findings have important clinical implications for both patients and health professionals. For patients with fibromyalgia, especially those who do not respond adequately to conventional medications, acupuncture represents a promising and well-tolerated therapeutic option. The fact that improvements were observed in virtually all regions of the body suggests that acupuncture may be effective in treating the chronic widespread pain characteristic of fibromyalgia. For practitioners, these results indicate that a standardized acupuncture approach can benefit multiple body areas simultaneously, although some regions may respond better than others.

The study has some important limitations that should be considered. The absence of a control group means that placebo effects cannot be completely ruled out, although previous research has already demonstrated the superiority of real acupuncture over sham acupuncture in fibromyalgia patients. The fact that it was conducted at a single center, although it ensures uniformity of treatment, may limit generalization of the results. In addition, most participants continued to use medications during the study, which makes it more difficult to assess the isolated effect of acupuncture.

In conclusion, this pioneering study demonstrates that manual acupuncture, using a standardized formula based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, produces broad improvements in chronic widespread pain in patients with severe fibromyalgia. The treatment proved particularly effective in the abdominal and forearm regions, but benefits were observed in virtually the entire body. These findings reinforce the role of acupuncture as a valuable complementary therapy in the multimodal management of fibromyalgia, especially for patients who do not respond adequately to conventional pharmacologic treatments. Future research could explore the combination of general protocols with more specific techniques for areas that showed lower response, potentially further optimizing therapeutic outcomes.