Abstract:

Domestic randomized controlled clinical trial studies of placebo acupuncture in recent years were reviewed to summarize the research status, and analyze the design, disease type and efficacy of placebo acupuncture. Through the review, it is found that the design of placebo acupuncture was mainly blunt-ended needles that do not break the skin, the disease types studied were mainly painful diseases, the placebo needles had certain efficacy for all kinds of diseases, and the efficacy of the trial groups was better than the placebo needles except for some studies. Meanwhile, some studies were found to have small sample sizes, insufficient description of research process, lack of standardization, and failure to use objective evaluation indicators. It′s concluded that the disease types of placebo acupuncture studies should be selected to evaluate the efficacy by objective indicators, and then to study the intrinsic mechanism in depth with the disease as the guide, and to design a new type of placebo acupuncture device to form a differentiated research program, and finally to develop corresponding standards to promote the progress of placebo acupuncture studies.

Key words: Acupuncture therapy, Placebo acupuncture, Randomized controlled trial