A Critical Evaluation of Acupuncture Research

Authors: Iven Francis Tao

Publish Date: 2009/04/03

Volume: 2, Issue: 4, Pages: 507-524

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Abstract

As Chinese medicine is going global it is simultaneously adapting swiftly to local patterns of perception and interpretation thereby being shaped into hitherto unknown forms The globalization of Chinese medicine produces multiple localized visions of a healing system whose trademark is an “innate heterodoxy” Barnes described the “psychologizing” of Chinese medicine in the USA Barnes Cult Med Psychiatry 224413–443 1998 In Germany however biomedical instead of “holistic” patterns of perception and interpretation and a tendency to “physiologize” prevail among patients and Chinese Medical therapists Here the recent German Acupuncture trials and Acupuncture Randomized Trials ART and Cochrane data base metaanalysis Linde et al 2009a shall serve as a prominent example of how German research centers around physiological phenomena and how these studies have triggered an international debate concerning the pointspecific nature of acupuncture interventions In order to evaluate the specific effect of acupuncture in randomized controlled trials verum acupuncture defined as acupuncture at “classical” acupuncture points and sham acupuncture defined as acupuncture at “nonacupuncture points” are frequently compared The anatomically exact location and specificity of acupuncture points are basic assumptions underlying this concept But how clearly divisible are verum and sham acupuncture points if acupuncture physiology itself is a historical construct To more adequately evaluate acupuncture’s effectiveness future clinical studies will have to tailor their methodology to the reality of the acupuncture encounter

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