Acupuncture appears to be effective in relieving pain even when the needles are applied in the wrong positions, according to a team of German researchers.
The startling findings stem from medical research conducted by a team at the Technical University in Munich led by Dr. Klaus Linde and published in the online journal Cochrane Review.
The researchers conducted two sets of tests on patients with chronic migraine pain. In one test, acupuncture needles were applied in strict adherence with established practice. But in the other test, the needles were inserted either in the wrong positions or else the needles did not penetrate the skin at all.
Amazingly, the patients who had received the “fake” acupuncture procedure showed a reduction in pain levels.
“Collectively, the studies suggest that migraine patients benefit from acupuncture, although the correct placement of needles seems to be less relevant than is usually thought by acupuncturists,” Linde wrote.
“We reviewed 22 trials which investigated whether acupuncture is effective in the prophylaxis of migraine. Six trials investigating whether adding acupuncture to basic care (which usually involves only treating acute headaches) found that those patients who received acupuncture had fewer headaches,” Linde said.
“Fourteen trials compared true acupuncture with inadequate or fake acupuncture interventions in which needles were either inserted at incorrect points or did not penetrate the skin,” he explained.
“In these trials both groups had fewer headaches than before treatment, but there was no difference between the effects of the two treatments. In the four trials in which acupuncture was compared to a proven prophylactic drug treatment, patients receiving acupuncture tended to report more improvement and fewer side effects,” Linde added.
“Much of the clinical benefit of acupuncture might be due to non- specific needling effects and powerful placebo effects, meaning selection of specific needle points may be less important than many practitioners have traditionally argued,” he said in a statement.
