What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

ebm-first.com

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Acupuncture delivered in 8 sessions over 4 weeks decreased pain but did not perform any better than placebo from a clinical perspective. Annals of Internal Medicine (21st December 2004)

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Concludes that there is insufficient evidence to determine the efficacy of acupuncture compared to medication, or to wait list control or sham acupuncture, in the management of depression. (17th march 2004)

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This study found no evidence that acupuncture is effective against postoperative nausea and vomiting. A subgroup analysis found that vomiting was significantly reduced among the acupuncture patients, but the authors noted that this finding might be due to studying multiple outcomes. Anaesthesia (February 2004)

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A double-blind, controlled study of 327 patients at a Turkish hospital found no evidence that electroacupuncture could prevent nausea and retching during gastroscopy, a procedure in which a flexible instrument is passed through the mouth into the stomach. Turkish Journal of Gastroenterology (2004)

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"This systematic review confirms the findings from other reviews which indicate consistent support for the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of postoperative nausea/vomiting, and dental pain. For other indicators the robustness of the effect of acupuncture is debatable and its clinical value questionable for conditions such as idiopathic headaches, chronic pain, smoking and fibromyalgia, however some reviews indicated promising results." Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (March 2002) [pdf]