ArticleAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2020
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.
Article in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Understanding Placebo and Nocebo Responses Based on a Randomized Sham-Controlled Study on Acupuncture in Integrative Cancer Care.Integrative cancer therapiesTrial
- Therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture therapy for acute pain in the emergency department.Integrative medicine research · 2026Review
- Acupuncture-Related Interventions for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of pain 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
- Concerns about the use of verum acupuncture points in sham acupuncture studies for pain conditions: Findings and insights from network meta-analysis.Integrative medicine research · 2025Article
- Review
- Article
- On defining acupuncture and its techniques: A commentary on the problem of sham.Integrative medicine research · 2022Article
- How to design high quality acupuncture trials-a consensus informed by evidence.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2022Article
- Acupuncture: A Promising Approach for Comorbid Depression and Insomnia in Perimenopause.Nature and science of sleep · 2021Review
- Double-blinding of an acupuncture randomized controlled trial optimized with clinical translational science award resources.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRandomised controlled trials of acupuncture performed using sham interventions to control for the placebo effect have mostly used two types of sham techniques: techniques with minimal insertion of acupuncture needles with no additional stimulation (shallow needling control) and techniques with sham acupuncture devices that do not penetrate the skin (sham device control). To achieve successful blinding, sham device controlled acupuncture trials also use the acupuncture base unit in the verum acupuncture group, but in the shallow needling control trials this is not necessary for the verum acupuncture treatment.
objectiveIn this study, we analysed the estimated comparative effectiveness of these two verum acupuncture modalities in studies of acupuncture for menopausal hot flashes that used two types of sham control treatments.
methodsWe conducted a network meta-analysis that included randomised controlled trials of acupuncture for hot flashes. Electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and AMED, were searched through March 2017. Data were extracted using a predefined data extraction tool by two independent reviewers. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised controlled trials. A five-node network meta-analysis was conducted based on the frequentist framework.
resultsEight studies were included in this review. From the network meta-analysis, we found that verum acupuncture in the shallow needling controlled trials was more effective than verum acupuncture in the sham device controlled trials (SMD -7.27, 95% CI-9.11 to -5.43). Significant heterogeneity and inconsistency were not observed among the included studies or the comparisons.
conclusionsFrom this preliminary analysis, we found that different types of verum acupuncture may have different effect sizes with respect to the severity of menopausal hot flashes.
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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.