the present study no additional effects were observed
with the use of EA compared with MA.
Acupuncture has been proved to be effective for the
treatment of several types of chronic pain and has a
better performance than a placebo intervention.21 In a
study comparing acupuncture and pharmacological
treatment, placebo acupuncture and pharmacological
treatment and pharmacological treatment alone in
patients with knee OA there was a reduction of 2.78,
1.58 and 1.34, respectively, in the mean pain intensity
after 4 weeks of treatment.7 Ahsin et al12 studied
patients with knee OA and demonstrated that the EA
group showed a greater reduction (72% on average)
in mean pain intensity than the placebo group, which
did not show any reduction. In the present study the
pain was reduced by 2.04 points in the MA group and
by 2.66 points in the EA group, which suggests that
this reduction results from the placebo effect and also
from a real effect of the treatment.