Acupuncture for 'frequent attenders' with medically unexplained symptoms.

We have some serious concerns about the methodology and the conclusions of the studies by Paterson, Rugg and colleagues.1,2 First of all, the results of these studies would have been more acceptable if five-element acupuncture would have been compared to placebo, that was not the case. Acupuncturists often argue that placebo control is not feasible with acupuncture. But in several studies investigators were able to compare acupuncture to placebo by using non-invasive acupuncture or superficial needling at non-acupuncture …