Aug. 20, 2010 -- Traditional Chinese acupuncture proved no more effective for treating osteoarthritis of the knee than sham acupuncture, a new study says. People who got either form of therapy showed significant improvement in pain.

The findings are published online and will appear in the September issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

Also, the communication style of the acupuncture practitioner had an effect on pain improvement and satisfaction with treatment. Patients whose health care provider said they expected the therapy to help the pain had significantly more improvement in pain, compared to patients whose provider was neutral about the therapy.

The findings suggest that the way health care providers communicate to their patients and manage patients’ expectations could affect outcomes.