"Acupuncture" is effective
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN2428726920070925
In fact, it seems to possibly work better than a non-personalized exercise regiment for back pain. This isn't earth shattering news. In 97, the NIH did a consensus report on efficacy of acupuncture versus biophysical methods (http://consensus.nih.gov/1997/1997Acupuncture107html.htm) and, IIRC, concluded that the efficacy was largely equal.
So what's the catch on this study? The catch is that it doesn't seem to actually be the acupuncture -- as in "I've been trained for 10 years to understand chi-flows" sense -- that's having an effect as much as the "I've had needles randomly stuck into me" sense that's having the effect.
There's going to be bunches of debate, since it's hard to control for placebo in acupuncture; inserting needles near meridians can be argued to have reduced therapeutic effect on your chi flow. However, what makes this interesting is that the effectiveness of sham versus traditional acupuncture 44.2% (sham) to 47.6% (traditional). Assuming that their experimentation techniques are okay, this gives a couple of solid results:
An interesting secondary result is, following from the last point, it's possible that a self-created workout system may not be as effective as getting acupuncture. Though, ideally, I think you'd do both. Unless it gets shown that both acupuncture and exercise have the same action mechanism for pain relief, you'd probably get independent benefits.
What should also be said, however, is that following is not clear from the representation given of this study:
Note, I use the term "customized" to mean a treatment that is tailored to individual diagnoses. The reason for this distinction is that it seems like the article implies that everyone was put through the same set of treatments, but didn't give information on the specifics of the conditions being treated.
In fact, it seems to possibly work better than a non-personalized exercise regiment for back pain. This isn't earth shattering news. In 97, the NIH did a consensus report on efficacy of acupuncture versus biophysical methods (http://consensus.nih.gov/1997/1997Acupuncture107html.htm) and, IIRC, concluded that the efficacy was largely equal.
So what's the catch on this study? The catch is that it doesn't seem to actually be the acupuncture -- as in "I've been trained for 10 years to understand chi-flows" sense -- that's having an effect as much as the "I've had needles randomly stuck into me" sense that's having the effect.
There's going to be bunches of debate, since it's hard to control for placebo in acupuncture; inserting needles near meridians can be argued to have reduced therapeutic effect on your chi flow. However, what makes this interesting is that the effectiveness of sham versus traditional acupuncture 44.2% (sham) to 47.6% (traditional). Assuming that their experimentation techniques are okay, this gives a couple of solid results:
- Acupuncture treatment (regardless of competence) is a viable, very cheap, low-impact, not-too-invasive therapy for backpain.
- Incorrect needle placement is still moderately effective.
- "Correct" needle placement performed in a non-customized manner is not significantly more effective.
- Acupuncture is, in general, significantly more effective than non-customized physical therapy.
An interesting secondary result is, following from the last point, it's possible that a self-created workout system may not be as effective as getting acupuncture. Though, ideally, I think you'd do both. Unless it gets shown that both acupuncture and exercise have the same action mechanism for pain relief, you'd probably get independent benefits.
What should also be said, however, is that following is not clear from the representation given of this study:
- Chi-flow is or is not a sensible working model for health.
- Customized acupuncture is or is not significantly more effective than sham or regimented acupuncture.
- Customized physical therapy and "conventional treatments" are more or less effective than Acupuncture -- especially customized Acupuncture.
- Acupuncture does or does not have any effect on health conditions beyond short/medium term perception of pain
Note, I use the term "customized" to mean a treatment that is tailored to individual diagnoses. The reason for this distinction is that it seems like the article implies that everyone was put through the same set of treatments, but didn't give information on the specifics of the conditions being treated.