Comments | awong: "Acupuncture" is effective

awong

"Acupuncture" is effective

Sep 25, 2007 10:58

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 ( Read more... )

Comments 4

mverrey September 26 2007, 06:17:20 UTC

One big point I think the articles are missing is the likelihood that the fake acupuncture group are being given a powerful placebo in the form of trendy, mystical acupuncture, while the western medecine group are being given the less glamorous therapy. The impression alone could be enough to explain the difference between no acupuncure and placebo acupuncture, and there's really no way to determine between the two explanations.

awong September 26 2007, 16:48:23 UTC

The study actually does say that they believe the cause may be a "super-placebo effect." However, the fact that it's placebo isn't relevant to its efficacy as a cure (notice, I'm very careful about how I state the points in my post regarding what/when/how/why treatment may be effective ( ... )

thedutch September 26 2007, 16:20:42 UTC

I think we should also consider that possibility that since we don't really understand how acupuncture works, we might entirely screw it up when evaluating its effectiveness. Stuff like this can really only prove that it works, not that it doesn't, and since they can't rule out placebo...

Basically they can't come to any firm conclusions.

awong September 26 2007, 16:57:42 UTC

...erp...just responded to mark about a similar point. It's not that acupuncture works as a whole. It's that, experimentally, for whatever reason, this is effective as a treatment. The study doesn't actually claim acupuncture is effective over placebo, it claims that treatment is effective over regimented workout for reasons unknown. As such, placebo is irrelevant for the discussion of efficacy of acupuncture over regimented workouts.

As for conclusions, I think they can bring firm conclusions, but they'll be very narrow (eg., a course of needles in the back on regular intervals over X months manage to make people perceive a large reduction in pain than Y type of exercise done over a similar period of time...but we don't know why.). Given that the biophysical mechanisms for why pain is reduced via physical therapy (when direct cause is unknown) isn't well understood anyways (they talk about endorphins and some other endocrine responses due to stimulus) the studies that result in prescription of physical therapy as treatment are ( ... )