Acupuncture a Sham? Study Finds Same Effect With Fake Method

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Acupuncture provides no better relief than fake methods or sham treatments. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine established the facts.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia discovered that acupuncture treatments offered 40 percent improvement for women who are suffering from hot flushes due to menopause. However, the same result is also true for fake acupuncture, EurekAlert reported.

Some 327 Australian women in their 40s participated in the study and half of them were provided with 10 sessions of the standard acupuncture, a traditional Chinese treatment for body pains. The other half, which is the control group, was provided with a needle-stimulating method that was less painful as an actual acupuncture.

However, the control group's needles were blunt and it didn't enter the skin. The needles also retracted when pressed. However, since these were fine needles, the participants were made to believe that it penetrated, per ABC Australia. After the sessions, both groups of women reported the same improvements and changes in the frequency and severity of their hot flushes.

"This was a large and rigorous study and we are confident there is no additional benefit from inserting needles compared with stimulation from pressuring the blunt needles without skin penetration for hot flushes," said lead study author Dr. Carolyn Ee. The doctor also said that the participants may not have been reporting their symptoms correctly due to a placebo effect -- they saw and they believe that they were getting treated, regardless if this was the real or the fake method.

Sydney Morning Herald reported that, unless there are more evidence on the effects of acupuncture, the experts cannot recommend this procedure for women who are looking for relief for menopause symptoms. Ee is actually familiar with the symptoms which led her to conduct the study.

"I had tried acupuncture for one or two patients who suffered from hot flushes and they reported remarkable results," she told Reuters. "I was curious as to whether or not they improved because of the acupuncture or for another reason." She even admitted that the results did not surprise her.

Meanwhile, Dr. Stephen Parnis of the Australian Medical Association stated that there had been instances were acupuncture did help patients in pain, such as those suffering from lower back pain or headaches. "But in this [study's] context it seems to be that whether it's pressure or acupuncture needles, they're both okay but they don't make a significant difference from one to the other," Parnis said.