J Altern Complement Med. 2000 Jun; 6(3): 275-9.

Variables of stimulation and placebo in acupuncture reflexotherapy.

Ceccherelli F, Gagliardi G, Rossato M, Giron G.

Department of Pharmacology and Anaesthesiology, University of Padova, Italy. istaneri@ux1.unipd.it

Placebo can be defined as "the idea of recovery." It represents the natural impulse toward recovery that is catalyzed by treatment or even simply by the idea of treatment. Therefore, placebo is not an "active" treatment; it is used in scientific research to discriminate between the actual effect of a drug or therapeutic technique and the result of chance or the will to recover. Even though it is only an idea, placebo can cause improvement and recovery in approximately 30% of the subjects treated with any therapeutic program and for very different pathologies. Acute pathologies are more sensitive to placebo than chronic ones; functional disorders respond better than organic alterations, and so on. The main controversial issues in the methodology of acupuncture research are: placebo, double-blinding, and the intensity of stimulation of needles. The most used placebo method is sham acupuncture, which is the insertion of the needles outside acupuncture points. It is argued that this methodologically incorrect choice leads to studying the importance of the acupuncture point, rather than that of acupuncture as a transdermic stimulation technique.