Researchers conclude that acupuncture increases the total effective rate of drug therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine combined acupuncture with standard drug therapy. Patients receiving both drug therapy and acupuncture in a combined treatment protocol had superior patient outcomes compared with patients receiving only drug therapy. The researchers conclude that the addition of acupuncture to standard drug therapy is effective for the alleviation of relevant symptoms and the regulation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) related laboratory indices (rheumatoid factor, hypersensitive C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, platelet, fibrinogen, and D-dimer).