Placebo Control and Placebo Effect in Acupuncture Medicine

Objectives: Clinical improvements can be observed following placebo administrations in clinical trials.Randomized controlled trials have been conducted to disentangle the specific effects of therapeutic interventions over the past decade.In acupuncture trials, non-penetrating placebo needles offer the opportunity to determine the specific effects of needling.Methods: The present review provides an overview of the concept of the placebo effect and the characteristics of the placebo needles.Results: Placebo control can contribute to minimize for bias and the contextual and psychological components of therapeutic interventions.Placebo control should meet two criteria: blinding efficacy (indistinguishable from active treatment) and physiological inertness.In the case of acupuncture, however, it is difficult to meet both criteria simultaneously.The dilemma of placebo needles suggests that placebo needles do not constitute proper control in acupuncture research.Considering the characteristics of placebo needles, patients are more likely to perceive placebo needles as active treatment in acupuncture trials compared to placebo pills in pharmaceutical trials.Placebo response might be observed more frequently to placebo needles than to placebo pills.When acupuncture treatments are utilized in clinical use, placebo effects can be enhanced by exploiting patients' expectations in the contextual or environmental cues that surround medical intervention.Conclusions: We have to consider these unique characteristics of placebo needles in order to avoid drawing premature conclusions that acupuncture itself is just a placebo.