Acupuncture Treatment for Pain: Systematic Review of Randomised Clinical Trials with Acupuncture, Placebo Acupuncture, and no Acupuncture Groups

Aim: To study the analgesic effect of acupuncture and placebo acupuncture and to explore whether the type of the placebo acupuncture is associated with the estimated effect of acupuncture. Data sources: Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, Biological Abstracts, and PsycLIT. Study selection: Three armed randomised clinical trials (including both a placebo or sham acupuncture group and a group receiving no acupuncture) Data extraction: Standardised mean differences from each trial were used to estimate the effect of acupuncture and placebo acupuncture. The different types of placebo acupuncture were ranked from 1 to 5 according to assessment of the possibility of a physiological effect, and this ranking was meta-regressed with the effect of acupuncture. Main results: Thirteen trials (3,025 patients) involving a variety of pain conditions were eligible. The allocation of patients was adequately concealed in eight trials. The clinicians managing the acupuncture and placebo acupuncture treatments were not blinded in any of the trials. One clearly outlying trial (70 patients) was excluded. A small difference was found between acupuncture and placebo acupuncture: standardised mean difference -0.17 (95 % confidence interval -0.26 to -0.08), corresponding to 4 mm (2 mm to 6 mm) on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. No statistically significant heterogeneity was present (P = 0.10, I2 = 36 %). A moderate difference was found between placebo acupuncture and no acupuncture: standardised mean difference -0.42 (-0.60 to -0.23). However, considerable heterogeneity (P < 0.001, I2 = 66 %) was also found, as large trials reported both small and large effects of placebo. No association was detected between the type of placebo acupuncture and the eff ect of acupuncture (P = 0.60). Conclusion: A small analgesic eff ect of acupuncture was found, which seems to lack clinical relevance and cannot be clearly distinguished from bias. Whether needling at acupuncture points, or at any site, reduces pain independently of the psychological impact of the treatment ritual is unclear.