Is Acupuncture Dose Dependent? Ramifications of acupuncture treatment dose within clinical practice and trials

Publication date: Available online 20 January 2020Source: Integrative Medicine ResearchAuthor(s): Matthew Bauer, John Leslie McDonald, Natalie SaundersAbstractProblems in acupuncture research associated with the limitations of randomized placebo-controlled trials have been discussed for decades. However, there has been little discussion around acupuncture trial design to optimize the chances of acupuncture treatment achieving maximum therapeutic benefit (MTB). While there are numerous factors in clinical trial design which can influence clinical outcomes, there is emerging evidence to suggest that acupuncture treatment dose and practitioner skill levels are important factors which contribute to the clinical quality of acupuncture research. There is also a need in trial reporting and systematic reviews to distinguish clearly between trials designed to deliver an “adequate” treatment dose (enough to cause some initial therapeutic benefit) and trials designed to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit. Only when acupuncture trials not designed to achieve MTB are excluded from meta-analyses is it likely that effect sizes of acupuncture treatments can be measured accurately.
Source: Integrative Medicine Research - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research