This was critical, because this had been a shortcoming of other previous studies with acupuncture - the simulated acupuncture treatments were not believable to the patients.

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We expected the acupuncture to improve the pain. We didn't really expect the largest benefit to be in fatigue or anxiety.

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This doesn't surprise me, as we see this pattern in other chronic pain problems: you can relieve pain, but it's a lot harder to prompt activity changes. A chronically ill person needs more than symptom relief to resume a normal lifestyle. We're now beginning to work on that problem.

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