ArticleAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2017
What is lost in the acupuncture trial when using a sham intervention?
Article in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 4 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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Does the outcome of acupuncture differ according to the location of sham needling points in acupuncture trials for migraine? A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers of medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Needling Point Location Used in Sham Acupuncture for Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of acupuncture in sham-controlled trials for knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Meta-Analysis of Integrated Therapeutic Methods in Noninvasive Lower Back Pain Therapy (LBP): The Role of Interdisciplinary Functional Diagnostics.Pain research & management · 2020Pooled it
- Fatigue in Sjögren's Disease - Integrating Biomedical and Psychosocial Aspects: A Narrative Review.Rheumatology and therapy · 2026Review
- Therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture therapy for acute pain in the emergency department.Integrative medicine research · 2026Review
- Cochrane reviews of acupuncture are dated, do not account for the specific effects of sham controls and likely underestimate the efficacy of acupuncture therapy.Integrative medicine research · 2025Review
- Acupuncture is ineffective for chronic low back pain? A critical analysis and rethinking.Frontiers of medicine · 2021Review
- Acupuncture in sham device controlled trials may not be as effective as acupuncture in the real world: a preliminary network meta-analysis of studies of acupuncture for hot flashes in menopausal women.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2020Article
- Acupuncture therapy for chronic low back pain: protocol of a prospective, multi-center, registry study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2019Article
- Electroacupuncture for chemotherapy-induced anorexia through humoral appetite regulation: A preliminary experimental study.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2019Article
- Sham Acupuncture Needs to be Revisited, Moving Beyond the Perspectives of the Placebo and Nocebo Effects: A Letter to the Editor.Integrative cancer therapiesArticle
Corrections and comments
- Comment on
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28456756What 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.