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Originally Posted by GreyWolf
Acupuncture DOES work.
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As a placebo only, which could be claimed for absolutely anything.
The study I'm sure you're referencing actually demonstrated once and for all that, for back pain, acupuncture works exactly as well as a placebo.
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The results were fascinating: they set a threshold for “improved” (which was either a 33% improvement in 3 aspects of one score, or 12% improvement on another measuring scale). They found that people having acupuncture were almost twice as likely to reach this level of improvement in back pain as people on medical treatment (which had already let them down for 8 years of course). But even more interestingly, the pretend acupuncture group, where they just bunged needles in any old place with a bit of ceremony, did just as well as the people having proper, posh, theatrical, genuine acupuncture.
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Acupuncture and back pain: some interesting background references – Bad Science
Acupuncture is pseudoscience. It does not work any more than a sugar pill.