Faked acupuncture treatment ‘is as good as the real thing’
Researches found “real” acupuncture no better at preventing migraines than a fake treatment.
Last week another team of scientists claimed to have shown that the beneficial effects of acupuncture were “all in the mind.” The latest study involved a group of 302 mostly female migraine patients in Germany.
Some were treated with real acupuncture over a period of eight weeks while others received a “sham” treatment consisting of needles placed into non-acupuncture points.
In both cases, about half the patients reported a reduction in the number of days they suffered headaches of at least 50%.
This compared with a response rate of just 15% from a third group on a waiting list who received no treatment at all.
The scientists, led by Dr Klaus Linde, from the Centre for Complementary Medicine at Technische University in Munich, wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association: “In our trial, acupuncture was associated with a reduction of migraine headaches compared with no treatment. However, the effects were similar to those observed with sham acupuncture and may be due to non-specific physiological effects of needling, to a powerful placebo effect, or to a combination of both.”
Last week, researchers at University College London and Southampton University reported findings from a brain scan study of arthritis patients which suggested there was more to acupuncture than merely a placebo.
The scans showed that only brain areas associated with the sensation of touch were activated when volunteers were touched with blunt needles.
During a trick treatment, involving retracting needles, an area of the brain associated with the production of natural opiate pain killers was activated.
The same area was activated by real acupuncture, but in addition another region of the brain called the insular was stimulated.
The findings were reported in the journal NeuroImage.
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