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COMMENTS & OPINIONS
Sham Acupuncture Is Not a Placebo
Shih Min Li, MD, MSc, PhD;
Jéssica Maria Costi, MD;
João Eduardo Marten Teixeira, MD
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We read with great interest the German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for chronic low back pain by Haake et al.1 Such a randomized and multicenter trial is always welcomed. The trials compared 3 different treatments and showed that almost half of the patients in the verum and sham acupuncture groups responded to treatment. This result was nearly twice the responders to multimodal conventional therapy. The sham acupuncture was described as "a form of acupuncture developed especially for this study,"1(p1894) and it was used to differentiate the physiologic (specific) from the psychologic (nonspecific) effects of acupuncture. But the trials proved that sham acupuncture has not only psychologic or nonspecific effects because it works better than multimodal conventional therapy used in routine care. In addition, almost half of the enrolled subjects responded by showing some improvement on the . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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RELATED ARTICLE
German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for Chronic Low Back Pain: Randomized, Multicenter, Blinded, Parallel-Group Trial With 3 Groups
Michael Haake, Hans-Helge Müller, Carmen Schade-Brittinger, Heinz D. Basler, Helmut Schäfer, Christoph Maier, Heinz G. Endres, Hans J. Trampisch, and Albrecht Molsberger
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(17):1892-1898.
ABSTRACT
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RELATED LETTER
Sham Acupuncture Is Not a Placebo—Reply
Heinz G. Endres, Albrecht Molsberger, and Michael Haake
Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(9):1012.
EXTRACT
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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
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What Is Acupuncture After All?
Costi et al.
Arch Intern Med 2009;169:1812-1812.
FULL TEXT
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