Placebo Problem In Acupuncture Studies and Interventions to Increase Report Quality

Studies for acupuncture that has been used as a medical therapeutic method for thousands of years in Far East, is being increased in Western world. In parallel to this increase, there raised several methodologic problems. The most important one of these is the choice of control procedure. If a valid and credible control method has not been chosen, these ‘placebo acupuncture’ or ‘sham acupuncture’ controls could make a negative impact on the study results. In this paper, these different sham acupuncture methods are dis-cussed to find an optimal control procedure. The second major problem which was encountered with acupuncture studies is related with the reporting of interventions. Like CONSORT checklist in conventional medicine, STRICTA recommendations list is prepared for the controlled acupuncture trials. In conclusion, to choose a valid and credible control procedure and to follow CONSORT checklist and STRICTA recommendations will improve the quality of acupuncture studies.