Complementary therapies in medicine
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Complement Ther Med · Oct 2009
Review Meta AnalysisAcupuncture for spinal cord injury survivors in Chinese literature: a systematic review.
To systematically review Chinese literature on the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). ⋯ Based on 7 RCTs done in China, the effectiveness of acupuncture for functional recovery and bladder dysfunction in SCI is suggestive. With the methodological quality of the included studies on functional recovery and the small number of studies on bladder dysfunction taken into consideration, further rigorous studies prove needed.
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Complement Ther Med · Oct 2009
Review Meta AnalysisAcupuncture for spinal cord injury survivors in Chinese literature: a systematic review.
To systematically review Chinese literature on the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). ⋯ Based on 7 RCTs done in China, the effectiveness of acupuncture for functional recovery and bladder dysfunction in SCI is suggestive. With the methodological quality of the included studies on functional recovery and the small number of studies on bladder dysfunction taken into consideration, further rigorous studies prove needed.
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Complement Ther Med · Dec 2003
Review Comparative StudySham interventions in randomized clinical trials of acupuncture--a review.
For non-drug interventions such as acupuncture, it is difficult to establish placebo or sham controls that are both inert and indistinguishable. We reviewed sham-controlled clinical trials of acupuncture to investigate (a) which types of sham interventions have been used in the past; (b) in what respects true and sham interventions differed; and (c) whether trials using different types of sham yielded different results. ⋯ Randomized trials investigating the specific effects of acupuncture have used a great variety of sham interventions as controls. Summarizing all the different sham interventions as "placebo" controls seems misleading and scientifically unacceptable.
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Complement Ther Med · Dec 2001
ReviewClinical trials of acupuncture: consensus recommendations for optimal treatment, sham controls and blinding.
Evidence of effectiveness is increasingly used to determine which health technologies are incorporated into public health provision. Acupuncture is a popular therapy that has been shown to be superior to placebo in the treatment of nausea and dental pain, and promising for migraine and osteoarthritis of the knee. For many other conditions, such as chronic pain, in which acupuncture is often used, the evidence is either insufficient or negative. ⋯ Patient blinding in acupuncture studies can be achieved by sham procedures and its success should be measured. While practitioner blinding is difficult, though not impossible, blinding of the observer and the analyst should be considered as the ideal for all studies. A number of recommendations are made which aim to improve the quality of sham-controlled acupuncture studies.
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Writers on homoeopathy frequently refer to classical homoeopathy, usually with the implication that this is the most complete and authoritative version of Hahnemann's views. However, such claims do not correspond with the historical facts. Homoeopathy arrived in the USA early in the 19th century and there underwent considerable modifications at the hands of its most influential adherents, who were deeply influenced by the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg. ⋯ Kentian views were brought to Britain by Margaret Tyler early in the 20th century and became dominant after the First World War, to give rise to what is called classical homoeopathy today. This is not only a considerable modification of Hahnemann's teaching, but it fails to take account of Hahnemann's late ideas which he developed in his Paris years and incorporated in the sixth edition of 'The Organon', published posthumously in 1920. Whatever one's opinion of the value of classical homoeopathy, it cannot be legitimately represented as a purely Hahnemannian teaching.