http://skepdic.com/acupunc.html
A little more for you.
And I just found this
Quote:
Acupuncture for Patients With Migraine
A Randomized Controlled Trial
Klaus Linde, MD; Andrea Streng, PhD; Susanne Jürgens, MSc; Andrea Hoppe, MD; Benno Brinkhaus, MD; Claudia Witt, MD; Stephan Wagenpfeil, PhD; Volker Pfaffenrath, MD; Michael G. Hammes, MD; Wolfgang Weidenhammer, PhD; Stefan N. Willich, MD, MPH; Dieter Melchart, MD
JAMA. 2005;293:2118-2125.
Context Acupuncture is widely used to prevent migraine attacks, but the available evidence of its benefit is scarce.
Objective To investigate the effectiveness of acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture and with no acupuncture in patients with migraine.
Design, Setting, and Patients Three-group, randomized, controlled trial (April 2002-January 2003) involving 302 patients (88% women), mean (SD) age of 43 (11) years, with migraine headaches, based on International Headache Society criteria. Patients were treated at 18 outpatient centers in Germany.
Interventions Acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or waiting list control. Acupuncture and sham acupuncture were administered by specialized physicians and consisted of 12 sessions per patient over 8 weeks. Patients completed headache diaries from 4 weeks before to 12 weeks after randomization and from week 21 to 24 after randomization.
Main Outcome Measures Difference in headache days of moderate or severe intensity between the 4 weeks before and weeks 9 to 12 after randomization.
Results Between baseline and weeks 9 to 12, the mean (SD) number of days with headache of moderate or severe intensity decreased by 2.2 (2.7) days from a baseline of 5.2 (2.5) days in the acupuncture group compared with a decrease to 2.2 (2.7) days from a baseline of 5.0 (2.4) days in the sham acupuncture group, and by 0.8 (2.0) days from a baseline if 5.4 (3.0) days in the waiting list group. No difference was detected between the acupuncture and the sham acupuncture groups (0.0 days, 95% confidence interval, –0.7 to 0.7 days; P = .96) while there was a difference between the acupuncture group compared with the waiting list group (1.4 days; 95% confidence interval; 0.8-2.1 days; P<.001). The proportion of responders (reduction in headache days by at least 50%) was 51% in the acupuncture group, 53% in the sham acupuncture group, and 15% in the waiting list group.
Conclusion Acupuncture was no more effective than sham acupuncture in reducing migraine headaches although both interventions
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http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content...ct/293/17/2118
Just a quick translation for those who don't speak researchese, what they found was that 51% of those who got acupuncture had some migrane relief while 15% of those with no treatment did. Sounds good until you see that 53% of those who THOUGHT they were getting acupuncture but were not, had migrane relief. This would be very normal for a plecebo effect.
You know this is a bit of a red pill blue pill moment for me here (and I'm not even a matrix fan). By presenting the known facts around acupunture, I am in fact lowering others faith in it and reducing the placebo effect. So while I may be upset with practitioners who make insane claims of what they can do (even treating aids with acupuncture) and I'd hope that anyone with a serious problem would see a real doctor. For things like chronic pain, which medicine is not able to handle well, it does make some people feel better and who cares if its all in their head.
Therefore: If you are going for pain therapy forget what I posted, (provided the nature of the pain is understood). If you are going for a serious medical condition don't forget what I posted.
