title: Is sham acupuncture as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture? It's too early to say.
abstract: Many clinical trials and experimental studies claim that sham acupuncture is as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture. However, these studies have no standard sham acupuncture control and many other factors can affect the clinical effect. These factors include needle retention time, treatment frequency, and the total number of treatments needed for satisfactory results, and all can change the clinical effect. The majority of existing acupuncture treatment studies do not consider these factors and lack standard dosage criteria. Therefore, it is still too early to conclude that sham acupuncture is as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture. This article investigates the factors that influence the curative effect of acupuncture as to help set a standard for acupuncture studies in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, First Teaching Hospital Affiliated to Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Science, Tianjin, 300193, China.|Institute of Acupuncture, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China.
authors.forename: Li-Li
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, First Teaching Hospital Affiliated to Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Science, Tianjin, 300193, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, First Teaching Hospital Affiliated to Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Science, Tianjin, 300193, China. wangs2008@163.com.
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China.
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Tianjin Ninghe Hospital, Tianjin, 301500, China.
authors.forename: Bing-Bing
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Deqi; acupuncture; acupuncture manipulation; sham acupuncture; specificity of acupoints