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Is sham acupuncture as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture? It’s too early to say

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Abstract

Many clinical trials and experimental studies claim that sham acupuncture is as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture. However, these studies have no standard sham acupuncture control and many other factors can affect the clinical effect. These factors include needle retention time, treatment frequency, and the total number of treatments needed for satisfactory results, and all can change the clinical effect. The majority of existing acupuncture treatment studies do not consider these factors and lack standard dosage criteria. Therefore, it is still too early to conclude that sham acupuncture is as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture. This article investigates the factors that influence the curative effect of acupuncture as to help set a standard for acupuncture studies in the future.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Acupuncture, First Teaching Hospital Affiliated to Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Science, Tianjin, 300193, China

    Li-li Zhang  (张丽丽), Qin Chu  (褚 芹) & Shu Wang  (王 舒)

  2. Institute of Acupuncture, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China

    Li-li Zhang  (张丽丽) & Hilary Lai  (黎嘉明)

  3. Department of Oncology, Tianjin Ninghe Hospital, Tianjin, 301500, China

    Bing-bing Xie  (谢冰冰)

Authors
  1. Li-li Zhang  (张丽丽)
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  2. Qin Chu  (褚 芹)
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  3. Shu Wang  (王 舒)
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  4. Hilary Lai  (黎嘉明)
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  5. Bing-bing Xie  (谢冰冰)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shu Wang  (王 舒).

Additional information

Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB518505) and National Industry of Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientific Research (No. 201207001-10)

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Zhang, Ll., Chu, Q., Wang, S. et al. Is sham acupuncture as effective as traditional Chinese acupuncture? It’s too early to say. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 22, 483–489 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-016-2458-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-016-2458-5

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