Using the right design controls for acupuncture trials: Methodological rigor and validity in research

Abstract

Acupuncture treatment can be defined as a medical procedure with an acupuncture needle at acupoints. Establishing suitable control settings is essential, based on the target elements of the acupuncture therapy. In order to properly design a clinical trial or an experiment, a control group must be established. Here, we overview the significance of the control group and its limitations in acupuncture research. Clinical trials have employed a variety of study designs and controls for acupuncture treatment in order to compare the effects of actual treatments with control groups that include no treatment or treatment as usual, sham acupuncture at true acupoints, real acupuncture at non-acupoints, and sham acupuncture at non-acupoints. In order to determine the point-specificity of acupuncture, real acupuncture at non-acupoints should be taken into consideration, whereas sham acupuncture at the same true acupoints should be used to determine the needling-specific effect of acupuncture. It is crucial to choose the optimum control for acupuncture treatments depending on the study's main goal and to interpret the results in accordance with the research design.