Research advance and prospects of evidence-based acupuncture science in China

提要

针灸学属于传统经验医学, 循证医学是新兴的医学方法学, 是经验医学的发展。 自上个世纪90 年代以来, 中国从事针灸学研究的工作者已开始吸收和借鉴循证医学的方法和原理, 用于指导针灸临床研究与医疗实践, 现在国内已有越来越多的针灸临床工作者采用和遵循循证医学的原则和方法。 从目前Cochrane图书馆发表的与针灸有关的系统评价来看, 以往认为有效的针灸疗法却没有足够的证据表明有效, 这与目前国内RCT质量不高直接有关。 今后, 发展并形成针灸临床研究专业化队伍和针灸临床研究中心, 才能从根本上提高针灸临床研究和评价的水平。 同时, 发展中国循证针灸学, 应结合中国针灸学的自身特点, 如重视古籍中的原始研究证据, 开展高质量的随机对照试验, 重视非随机研究的系统评价等等。

Summary

Acupuncture is a traditional empirical medicine, and evidence-based medicine(EBM) is a new medical method and development of the empirical medicine. Since 1990s, Chinese acupuncture workers began to absorb and use the methods and principles of EBM to guide acupuncture clinical research and practice. Now more and more domestic acupuncture clinicians use and follow the methods and principles of EBM. On the systemic review of acupuncture-associated articles in Cochrane library, previously effective acupuncture therapy lacks adequate evidences, which may be related to the low quality of randomized controlled trials(RCTs). In the future, only developing specialized team of acupuncture clinical research and clinical research center can radically elevate the levels of acupuncture clinical research and evaluation. Meanwhile, developing China’s evidence-based acupuncture should base itself on the characteristics of acupuncture, such as emphasis on original research in ancient books, high-quality single RCTs and systemic review of non-randomized researches.