Research and commonly treated conditions


This page goes a bit deeper into some of the issues surrounding acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the UK today. It includes raising some problems with how acupuncture is researched and dismissed by certain groups, and an overview of research evidence from a number of sources.

Introduction statement on research

It is necessary to orientate the reader to a few issues in the research of acupuncture in particular and CAM more generally. The most respected format of original research in western society is the randomised controlled trial (RCT) this means that the groups are selected randomly from the study population, and as far as possible other factors influencing a condition studied are 'controlled for' meaning they don't affect the results.

Of these designs the double blind format is considered best, that means neither the practitioner nor the patient in the trial know who is getting the which treatment. This works very efficiently in drug trials where it is easy to substitute another drug or a placebo pill to determine effect. It is not so applicable to a physical therapy however, where it is important for safety that even sham treatment is given by someone who knows what they are doing and the person receiving can often tell. Furthermore treatment with acupuncture and Chinese medicine is usually individualised, and this doesn't fit well with RCT design as it is harder to 'control'.

In the sum of acupuncture research there are a great many trials which find benefits to acupuncture and significant difference to placebo, and also many that find no difference or no benefit. In order to unpick this it is necessary to look at each piece and decide why. It is a paradox which leads on balance to inconclusive evidence. However this is not the same as no evidence, a claim sometimes levied by sceptics. Typically a sceptic will critique a positive trial on sample size or control, and a practitioner will critique a negative trial based on inappropriate methodology.

This is a problem in acupuncture and some trials give acupuncture near 'real' points as a sham, some use 'real' points that ought to have no effect and some use retractable stage dagger like fake needles. In reviews these are often treated equally despite the needling near a 'point' more commonly showing a strong treatment effect than the retractable needles.

Basically what needs to be understood is that 'sham' acupuncture is not really a placebo at all since it has physiological effects and a much stronger effect than would be expected in a standard placebo.

resouces summarising research on acupuncture


Please visit the following links to find out more about research on the use of acupuncture for:


For a comprehensive list of conditions that can be treated with acupuncture, please also visit the British Acupuncture Council website:

BAcC research fact sheets

Cochrane reviews of acupuncture

The Cochrane Collaboration, seen as, and aiming to be the most reliable source of scientific data, also contains a great deal of evidence to support the use of acupuncture for a number of conditions.

If you have a look here for example, you will see many reviews find there is evidence for acupuncture being effective but are cautious in their conclusions due to small number of studies, or small study sizes. Cochrane acupuncture search

Cochrane reviews of Chinese Herbal Medicine

As in the case of acupuncture, herbalists are legally limited in what they can claim to treat so if you want to read further about research the Cochrane Chinese herbs search in the library of systematic reviews contains evidence of intervention benefits, i.e. amelioration, but not always necessarily cure in some conditions.

Herbal medicine ought to be more suitable for placebo controlled trials, however very rarely are studies designed in a way that allows for the individualisation of treatment so central to the Chinese medicine way of looking at health. Therefore what we often find is the studies included in reviews are for single herb extracts, all given to people with the same biomedical disease label, but with no attention to diagnosis within the Chinese medical system through which a practitioner would actually make their choice of prescription. Despite this methodological bias authors still find positive results sometimes.

National Institute of Health and NCCAM (USA) on Acupuncture

The National Institute of Health (USA) found the following conditions to be effectively treated by acupuncture.

NIH Consenses Statement on Acupuncture November 3-5, 1997. Vol.15 No.5.

  • Nausea/Vomiting
  • Dental Pain
  • Addictions
  • Stroke Rehabilitation
  • Headache
  • Menstrual Cramps
  • Tennis Elbow
  • Low Back Pain
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Asthma
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
  • Various Musculoskeletal Pains

Below are links to search results on Pubmed, the NIH funded medical research database.

Systematic reviews/ reviews and meta-anayses (Pubmed last 5 years)

Randomised controlled trials (Pubmed last 5 years)

Also see the following documents published by NCCAM at the NIH for more information about acupuncture and the evidence base.

Acupuncture, and introduction (NIH) PDF

Acupuncture for pain (NIH) PDF

Traditional Chinese Medicine Overview (NIH) PDF

The British Medical association on acupuncture


The British Medical Association (BMA) has found:

“That in light of the evidence supporting the use of acupuncture for back pain, dental pain, migraine, nausea and vomiting in appropriate patients, consideration should be given to the need for a policy, guidelines, and flexible mechanisms for making this treatment available to NHS patients.” (BMA, Acupuncture: efficacy, safety and practice. p93)

The World Health Organisation on Acupuncture


The World Health Organization found that acupuncture is indicated in the following conditions. (Bannerman R H 1979 Acupuncture: the WHO View. World Health, December, p27- 28.)

Please note that I recognise that not all the research included in the– WHO trials has the necessary rigour to meet the research standards of the western medical establishment. As an international organisation WHO is possibly less biased against research from non western countries. As such this information is for interest and meant as a guideline of the possible potential uses of acupuncture.

The diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials reported in the recent literature can be classified into four categories as shown below.

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved through controlled trials to be an effective treatment:

  • Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
  • Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
  • Biliary colic
  • Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
  • Dysentery, acute bacillary
  • Dysmenorrhoea, primary
  • Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
  • Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
  • Headache
  • Hypertension, essential
  • Hypotension, primary
  • Induction of labour
  • Knee pain
  • Leukopenia
  • Low back pain
  • Malposition of fetus, correction of
  • Morning sickness
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Neck pain
  • Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
  • Periarthritis of shoulder
  • Postoperative pain
  • Renal colic
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Sciatica
  • Sprain
  • Stroke
  • Tennis elbow

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

  • Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
  • Acne vulgaris
  • Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  • Bell's palsy
  • Bronchial asthma
  • Cancer pain
  • Cardiac neurosis
  • Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
  • Cholelithiasis
  • Competition stress syndrome
  • Craniocerebral injury, closed
  • Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
  • Earache
  • Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
  • Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
  • Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
  • Female infertility
  • Facial spasm
  • Female urethral syndrome
  • Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
  • Gastrokinetic disturbance
  • Gouty arthritis
  • Hepatitis B virus carrier status
  • Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
  • Hyperlipaemia
  • Hypo-ovarianism
  • Insomnia
  • Labour pain
  • Lactation, deficiency
  • Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
  • Ménière disease
  • Neuralgia, post-herpetic
  • Neurodermatitis
  • Obesity
  • Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Pain due to endoscopic examination
  • Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein‐Leventhal syndrome)
  • Postextubation in children
  • Postoperative convalescence
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Prostatitis, chronic
  • Pruritus
  • Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
  • Raynaud syndrome, primary
  • Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
  • Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  • Retention of urine, traumatic
  • Schizophrenia
  • Sialism, drug-induced
  • Sjögren syndrome
  • Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
  • Spine pain, acute
  • Stiff neck
  • Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
  • Tietze syndrome
  • Tobacco dependence
  • Tourette syndrome
  • Ulcerative colitis, chronic
  • Urolithiasis
  • Vascular dementia
  • Whooping cough (pertussis)

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:

  • Chloasma
  • Choroidopathy, central serous
  • Colour blindness
  • Deafness
  • Hypophrenia
  • Irritable colon syndrome
  • Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
  • Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
  • Small airway obstruction

World Health Organisation (WHO)

It is also worth looking at WHO news on issues surrounding traditional medicines on this website. Cultural, economic and environmental issues are raised and discussed.