Acupuncture: What Does the Most Reliable Evidence Tell Us?

Many trials of acupuncture and numerous systematic reviews have recently become available. Their conclusions are far from, uniform. In an attempt to find the most reliable type of evidence, this article Provides an overview of Cochrane a-views of acupuncture. Such reviews were studied, their details extracted, and they were categorized (is: reviews with a negative conclusion (no evidence that acupuncture is effective); reviews that were inconclusive; and reviews with a Positive or tentatively positive conclusion. Thirty-two reviews were found, covering a wide range of conditions. Twenty five of them, failed to demonstrate the effectiveness of acupuncture. Five reviews arrived at positive alternatively Positive conclusions and two were inconclusive. The conditions that are most solidly backed up by evidence are chemotherapy-induced nausea/vomiting, Postoperative nausea/vomiting, and idiopathic headache. It is concluded that Cochrane reviews of acupuncture do not suggest that this treatment is effective for a wide range of conditions. J Pain Symptom Manage 2009;37:709-714. (C) 2009 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.