There was low- quality evidence that acupuncture  improves pain compared to no treatment or st and ard treatment , but good evidence that it is no better than sham acupuncture .
The evidence for homoeopathy , spinal manipulation and herbal medicine was limited .
No firm conclusions were drawn for efficacy of either spinal manipulation or homoeopathy for FM .
Background Fibromyalgia ( FM ) is a chronic , debilitating pain disorder .
Dissatisfaction with conventional medicine can lead people with FM to turn to complementary and alternative medicine ( CAM ) .
Two previous overviews of systematic review s of CAM for FM have been published , but they did not assessed for risk of bias in the review process .
An Open, Pilot Study to Evaluate the Potential Benefits of Coenzyme Q10 Combined with Ginkgo Biloba Extract in Fibromyalgia Syndrome
An open , uncontrolled study was undertaken to measure the subjective effects of coenzyme Q10 combined with a Ginkgo biloba extract in volunteer subjects with clinical ly diagnosed fibromyalgia syndrome . Anecdotal reports from patients with fibromyalgia syndrome have cl aim ed benefits from the use of these supplements . The aim of this study was to determine if these reports could be substantiated in a pilot clinical trial . Patient question ing had determined that poor quality of life was a major factor in the condition and a quality -of-life question naire was used to measure potential benefit . Subjects were given oral doses of 200 mg coenzyme Q10 and 200 mg Ginkgo biloba extract daily for 84 days . Quality of life was measured , using the well-vali date d Dartmouth Primary Care Cooperative Information Project/World Organization of Family Doctors ( COOP/WONCA ) question naire that measures seven different subjective responses , at 0- , 4- , 8- and 12-week intervals . The subjects were asked for an overall self-rating at the end of the study . A progressive improvement in the quality -of-life scores was observed over the study period and at the end , the scores showed a significant difference from those at the start . This was matched by an improvement in self-rating with 64 % cl aim ing to be better and only 9 % cl aim ing to feel worse . Adverse effects were minor . A controlled study is now planned
There was low- quality evidence that acupuncture  improves pain compared to no treatment or st and ard treatment , but good evidence that it is no better than sham acupuncture .
The evidence for homoeopathy , spinal manipulation and herbal medicine was limited .
No firm conclusions were drawn for efficacy of either spinal manipulation or homoeopathy for FM .
Background Fibromyalgia ( FM ) is a chronic , debilitating pain disorder .
Dissatisfaction with conventional medicine can lead people with FM to turn to complementary and alternative medicine ( CAM ) .
Two previous overviews of systematic review s of CAM for FM have been published , but they did not assessed for risk of bias in the review process .