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 .
Improvement in fibromyalgia symptoms with acupuncture: results of a randomized controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that acupuncture improves symptoms of fibromyalgia .  PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted a prospect i ve , partially blinded , controlled , r and omized clinical trial of patients receiving true acupuncture  compared with a control group of patients who received simulated acupuncture . All patients met American College of Rheumatology criteria for fibromyalgia and had tried conservative symptomatic treatments other than acupuncture .  We measured symptoms with the Fibromyalgia Impact Question naire ( FIQ ) and the Multidimensional Pain Inventory at baseline , immediately after treatment , and at 1 month and 7 months after treatment . The trial was conducted from May 28 , 2002 , to August 18 , 2003 . RESULTS Fifty patients participated in the study : 25 in the acupuncture group and 25 in the control group .  Total fibromyalgia symptoms , as measured by the FIQ , were significantly improved in the acupuncture group compared with the control group during the study period ( P = .01 ) . The largest difference in mean FIQ total scores was observed at 1 month ( 42.2 vs 34.8 in the control and acupuncture groups , respectively ; P = .007 ) . Fatigue and anxiety were the most significantly improved symptoms during the follow-up period . However , activity and physical function levels did not change . Acupuncture was well tolerated , with minimal adverse effects . CONCLUSION This study paradigm allows for controlled and blinded clinical trials of acupuncture . We found that acupuncture significantly improved symptoms of fibromyalgia . Symptomatic improvement was not restricted to pain relief and was most significant for fatigue and anxiety
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 .