Studies show that acupuncture legitimately lowers chronic pain better than standard medical treatments and pain reduction is not a result of the placebo effect. The studies included 18,000 patients with a wide variety of ailments such as migraines, arthritis, back and neck pain and shoulder pain.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/acupuncture-provides-true-pain-relief-in-study/?ref=topics&_r=0