Analysis: The Acupuncture Myth

The Acupuncture Myth “In my opinion humanity should not waste another penny, another moment, another patient- any further resources on this dead end. We should consider this a lesson learned, cut our losses, and move on,” states Dr. Steven Novella a clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine and president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society. Dr. Novella’s strongly worded statement is about the practice of acupuncture. Even though there have been numerous studies surrounding acupuncture there is simply not enough consistent evidence to prove that acupuncture is an effective treatment to heal or cure any type of condition. Acupuncture is a practice that dates back thousands of years. It consists of placing

reviewed 13 trials with 3,025 patients experiencing various types of pain. The results between real acupuncture, the fake acupuncture, and no acupuncture were minimal. A slight difference was measured between those that received acupuncture (real or sham), than those that did not. Another much larger study performed by Vickers et al. involved 29 trials involving nearly 18,000 patients with a variety of chronic pain. The researchers stated, “Significant differences between true and sham acupuncture indicate that acupuncture is more than a placebo. However, these differences are relatively modest, suggesting that factors in addition to the specific effects of needling are important contributors to the therapeutic effects of acupuncture.” (Vickers et al.) In both the Madsen et al. and the Vickers et al. studies, there was a slightly larger difference in results between patients who received acupuncture (both real and sham), and those that did not. The researchers admit that the results are “modest” and that there may be other considerations when reviewing the results. According to ScienceBasedMedicince.org, “There is a surprisingly large published literature on the clinical effects of acupuncture. Most people are equally surprised to learn that the literature is essentially negative- probably because the press cherry picks apparently positive studies and uncritically re-prints the press releases of acupuncture proponents.”