Media

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Doctor

Australia

"Acupuncture works - even without needles"

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Published: 12 May 2009

Category: Complementary and Alternative Medicines

Rating: (3½ stars)

what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

Acupuncture brought more relief to people with back pain than standard treatments, whether it was done with a toothpick or a real needle, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that raises new questions about how acupuncture works.

The original article can be found at: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/acupuncture-works--even-without-needles-20090512-b14m.html

how did it rate? (more information)

Criteria	Rating
Total Score	5 of 8
Novelty of remedy	Satisfactory (?)
CAM classification	Not Applicable
Availability of Treatment	Satisfactory (?)
Treatment Options	Satisfactory (?)
Disease Mongering	Satisfactory (?)
Evidence	Not Satisfactory (?)
Quantification of Benefits of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Harms of Remedy	Not Satisfactory (?)
Costs of Remedy	Not Applicable
Sources of Information	Satisfactory (?)
Relies on Press Release	Not Applicable

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

The story reports very interesting findings. Unfortunately a key point was misreported: At 8 weeks 60% of acupuncture and 39% of controls had significant benefit, however the benefit in controls was not mentioned.

It is a shame the story did not explore the context a bit further. Acupuncture is not totally safe. I have seen several needle injuries including one collapsed lung from acupuncture, so if equally effective, the toothpicks may be the better choice.

public forum

(04 Jun 2009) Michael A Zimmer writes,

"This was not "well conducted research".

All treatment arms of this study still received standard care. That the fake acupuncture, non-specific acupuncture and personalised acupuncture regimed had no statistical difference in their effects demonstrated that the observed effect was nothing more than placebo in action.

Please consider revising your rating and commentary on this study (particularly on "evidence")

Some commentary:
http://thebackpainblog.org/acupuncture-needles-no-better- than-toothpicks/
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=492
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=535
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/05/acupuncture-still-doesnt-work.html
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/05/another_acupuncture_study_misi nterpreted.php"

Media Doctor response,

"Dear Michael
Thank you for your feedback. We can see the inconsistency between how this and the other similar story were rated. We will modify accordingly.

Media Doctor"

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