There Are Placebos and Placebos . . .

‘Sham’ acupuncture seems to be a more effective placebo than a sugar pill for combating pain due to repetitive strain injury (e.g. carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow). Harvard researchers, reporting in the British Medical Journal, that they assigned 270 patients to receive either sham acupuncture treatment twice a week, or a sugar pill daily, for 2 weeks. The sham acupuncture was identical to the real thing, except the needles were blunted and retracted into the shaft handle (like a theatrical dagger). After two weeks half the patients given sham acupuncture were given the real treatment, while the others continued with the sham procedure. In a similar way, half the sugar pill patients were switched to an active drug (amitriptyline, an antidepressant).

Weekly pain scores decreased more with sham acupuncture than in the sugar pill patients – about twice as much more. The severity of their symptoms also decreased, compared with those in the patients taking sugar pills.

Significantly, after two weeks 75% of the sham acupuncture patients believed they were getting an active treatment, compared with only 48% of the sugar pill group. This suggests that the ritual of treatment can produce a greater placebo effect, beyond that normally seen with placebos.  (It also shows that it may not matter too much if your acupuncturist isn’t paying attention and gives you your treatment in the wrong spots!  Just joking – RWG).