Acupuncture is no better than sham “placebo” treatments at controlling pain and may even be harmful, a study has found.
At least five patients are known to have died after undergoing the ancient Chinese needle therapy while dozens of others suffered infections and trauma, said researchers.
But there was little “truly convincing evidence” that the treatment worked, other than by stimulating a placebo response.
Acupuncture involves planting needles into the skin at precise points to influence the flow of “qi”, a vital “life force” energy.
The practice dates back almost 2,000 years and is used to treat a wide range of illnesses, as well as infertility.
One of its primary uses is to alleviate chronic pain. The new research analysed 266 reviews of investigations into acupuncture pain treatments.
The British and Korean researchers found nothing to suggest that “real” acupuncture performed better than sham treatments which did not penetrate the skin with needles.
The placebo procedures, conducted without patients knowing the treatments were fake, were no less effective than genuine acupuncture at controlling chronic back pain. Both were more effective than standard care treatments.
Lead researcher professor Edzard Ernst, from the Peninsula Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, said: “Many systematic reviews of acupuncture for pain management are available, yet they only support few indications, and contradictions abound.
“Acupuncture remains associated with serious adverse effects. One might argue that, in view of the popularity of acupuncture, the number of serious adverse effects is minute. We would counter, however, that even one avoidable adverse event is one too many. The key to making progress would be to train all acupuncturists to a high level of competency.”
The positive effects of acupuncture were attributed to factors such as therapist conviction, patient enthusiasm or the practitioner’s communication style.
A number of studies had recorded adverse effects from acupuncture, including 38 cases of infection and 42 of trauma.
Many were the result of malpractice. Among the most frequently reported complications were penetration of the chest cavity leading to lung collapse and bacterial and viral infections. There were five recorded cases of patients dying after treatment.
The research was reported in Pain, the journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain.
In an accompanying article, retired US family physician and former US Air Force surgeon Harriet Hall, a prolific writer on alternative medicine, said: “Importantly, when a treatment is truly effective, studies tend to produce more convincing results as time passes and the weight of evidence accumulates. When a treatment is extensively studied for decades and the evidence continues to be inconsistent, it becomes more and more likely that the treatment is not truly effective. This appears to be the case for acupuncture.
“In fact, taken as a whole, the published (and scientifically rigorous) evidence leads to the conclusion that acupuncture is no more effective than placebo.”