Quote:
Originally Posted by Willravel
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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I'm not referring to a single study... I'm referring to dozens of studies that show that acupuncture is a viable alternative for short-term (i.e. needle-in) anesthesia. For example:
Neurobiology of Acupuncture: Toward CAM -- Ma 1 (1): 41 -- Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Acupuncture Analgesia: II. Clinical Considerations -- Wang et al. 106 (2): 611 -- Anesthesia & Analgesia
Acupuncture for peripheral joint osteoarthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis -- Kwon et al. 45 (11): 1331 -- Rheumatology
Now a study in the NEJM did find that there was no significant difference in the perceived reduction of pain in a double-blind study, but it was an uncharacteristically sloppy piece of work for a study to be published there. A cursory scan of the peer-reviewed literature finds that most well-designed studies show a significant effect for acupuncture.