Acupuncture Same as Placebo in Treating Migraines
Another blow for eastern style medicine:
"...acupuncture was associated with a reduction of migraine headaches compared with no treatment; however, the effects were similar to those observed with sham acupuncture and may be due to nonspecific physiological effects of needling, to a powerful placebo effect, or to a combination of both."
It's all about belief. Presumably hypnosis would be just as effective, perhaps more so.
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A small study into acupuncture and back pain has found very similar results. Acupuncture was found to be effective in reducing pain, but only as effective as a simulation of acupuncture that did not involve piercing the skin. It seems to be down to ritual and belief again.
A review of the research in 2002 found the same for smoking cessation. No evidence from 22 separate studies that acupuncture was effective.
As an interesting follow-on, a news story from Nature.com reports on the first acupuncture study that shows an effect beyond placebo.
According to the article, the effect was also detected as a brain response when measured with a PET scanner.
Thanks for posting that study, I had a look at it.
Unfortunately (for the efficacy of acupuncture) there was still no evidence of the reduction in actual levels of pain - although admittedly that was not what this study was aiming to show.
What it does show is that your pattern of brain activation is different when someone sticks a real needle in you than if you think someone has stuck a real needle in you - but in fact they haven't.
In the article they go on to argue that this difference is not a result of the physical presence or absence of the needle below the skin - which would of course be the primary objection to their finding.
I don't know enough about it to follow their technical argument, although it does appear shaky to me.
In general I'm still prepared to be open-minded about acupuncture but it seems that the research is still failing to find any meaningful effect.
You can not rely on a single study... The only way to say it works or not is summary of controlled trials.
It is hard to research practices where there is inevitable contact with a practitioner like acupuncture or dentistry, etc. There are may fields in medicine that are not usually assessed against placebo. And when they are, you find out that they are not much better than placebo (example study of knee osteoarthritis placebo vs surgery).
Furthermore, acupuncture is very difficult to research, because the treatment is individual for individual patients. To design a high quality study, the treatment protocol has to be exactly the same for every patient. Nevertheless, there are systematic reviews of controlled trials that prove acupuncture to provide effective pain relief, like this one http://acupuncture.vitalis.co.nz/2005/05/acupuncture-effectively-relieves.html
Acupuncture is a centuries-old chinese method of healing. Acupuncture is the insertion of really fine needles (sometimes in conjunction with electric current). Acupuncture is something that has mystified and baffled scientists researchers and the public for some time. On the average probably no more than 10 points or so can be selected for treatment. Blockage of energy is responsible for pain or disease in the corresponding body part.
Elboydny
Yes, have you tried hypnosis on rats? We have tried acupuncture and it works. Furthermore, it induces deductable biochemical changes.