Is the sham acupuncture group a real sham control group? Comments on "Vas J et al. Acupuncture in patients with acute low back pain: a multicentre randomised controlled clinical trial. Pain, 2012;153(9):1883-9"
Author: Wu D, Guo X.
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Epidemiology, 2nd Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China; Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. Electronic address: drdarongwu@gmail.com.
Conference/Journal: Pain
Date published: 2013 Aug 17
Other:
Pages: S0304-3959(13)00450-8 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.08.010 , Word Count: 105
We found that two of the acupuncture points, Neiguan and Kongzui, chosen as the option points for sham acupuncture group (SA) in the trial conducted by Vas J et al, were reported as effective therapeutic acupuncture points for patient with acute low back pain. It may bias the results of this study. To avoid therapeutic acupuncture points be mistakenly chosen for a sham group, we suggest a thorough literature review of the acupuncture points which might be used both for treatment and control group, before the process of consulting local experts.
Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.
KEYWORDS:
Acupuncture point, Control group, Sham acupuncture
PMID: 23962589
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