Trial reportPain2013
Specifying the nonspecific components of acupuncture analgesia.
Trial report in Pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- The blinding status and characteristics in acupuncture clinical trials: a systematic reviews and meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Placebo Devices as Effective Control Methods in Acupuncture Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Acupuncture for acute treatment of migraine without aura: A randomized clinical trial.Headache · 2026Trial
- Low-level laser therapy and laser acupuncture therapy for pain relief after initial archwire placement : A randomized clinical trial.Journal of orofacial orthopedics = Fortschritte der Kieferorthopadie : Organ/official journal Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kieferorthopadie · 2024Trial
- Pilot clinical trial of a clinical meditation and imagery intervention for chronic pain after spinal cord injury.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Factors associated with a clinically relevant reduction in menopausal symptoms of a standardized acupuncture approach for women with bothersome menopausal symptoms.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2021Trial
- Effect of low-level laser therapy on tooth-related pain and somatosensory function evoked by orthodontic treatment.International journal of oral science · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Effect of acupuncture 'dose' on modulation of the default mode network of the brain.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2016Trial
- Can acupuncture treatment be double-blinded? An evaluation of double-blind acupuncture treatment of postoperative pain.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Expectancy in real and sham electroacupuncture: does believing make it so?Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2014Trial
- Acupuncture does not work and has no place in science-based medicine.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Article
- Beyond Needling: Integrating a Bayesian Brain Model into Acupuncture Treatment.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- When sng meets acupuncture -- a paradigm-shift biomarker for translational research.Journal of traditional and complementary medicine · 2025Review
- The Anatomical and Physiological Knowledge of theMedical acupuncture · 2024Review
- How does pretreatment expectancy influence pain outcomes with electroacupuncture and battlefield acupuncture in cancer survivors?: Pretreatment expectancy and pain reduction by acupuncture.Integrative medicine research · 2024Article
- Effects of acupuncture on pain and function in patients with subacromial impingement syndrome: A randomized sham-controlled trial.Integrative medicine research · 2024Article
- Acupuncture in management of acute dental pain - A systematic review and meta-analysis.The Japanese dental science review · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
It is well known that acupuncture has pain-relieving effects, but the contribution of specific and especially nonspecific factors to acupuncture analgesia is less clear. One hundred one patients who developed pain of ≥ 3 on a visual analog scale (VAS, 0 to 10) after third molar surgery were randomized to receive active acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, or no treatment for 30 min with acupuncture needles with potential for double-blinding. Patients' perception of the treatment (active or placebo) and expected pain levels (VAS) were assessed before and halfway through the treatment. Looking at actual treatment allocation, there was no specific effect of active acupuncture (P=.240), but there was a large and significant nonspecific effect of placebo acupuncture (P<.001), which increased over time. Interestingly, however, looking at perceived treatment allocation, there was a significant effect of acupuncture (P<.001), indicating that patients who believed they received active acupuncture had significantly lower pain levels than those who believed they received placebo acupuncture. Expected pain levels accounted for significant and progressively larger amounts of the variance in pain ratings after both active and placebo acupuncture (up to 69.8%). This is the first study to show that under optimized blinding conditions, nonspecific factors such as patients' perception of and expectations toward treatment are central to the efficacy of acupuncture analgesia and that these factors may contribute to self-reinforcing effects in acupuncture treatment. To obtain an effect of acupuncture in clinical practice, it may therefore be important to incorporate and optimize these factors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.