title: Is acupuncture a placebo therapy?
abstract: Complementary therapies such as acupuncture are suggested to have enhanced placebo effects. Numerous high quality randomized controlled trials found that acupuncture is no better than its placebo control; however, patients in both real and sham acupuncture groups report clinically meaningful symptom improvements. A possible interpretation of these trials is that acupuncture acts entirely by engaging placebo mechanisms. This article provides further evidence supporting that acupuncture might be a potent placebo, and explains how to address major concerns following this suggestion.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Center, 2nd Teaching Hospital, University of Jilin Norman Bethune School of Medicine, Changchun, PR China.
authors.forename: Yong-Chen
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, 1st Teaching Hospital, University of Jilin Norman Bethune School of Medicine, Changchun, PR China.
authors.forename: Ting-Ting
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Center, 2nd Teaching Hospital, University of Jilin Norman Bethune School of Medicine, Changchun, PR China. Electronic address: taoliu99@sina.com.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D015990:Placebo Effect
keywords: Acupuncture; Pain; Placebo effects; RCT