麻豆传媒

ACUPUNCTURE works. So say German scientists who have put the therapy to the
test using a 鈥減lacebo鈥� needle.

Rather like a theatrical dagger, the placebo has a blunt needle that retracts
into the handle when pressed onto the skin. The patient feels a pinprick and
鈥渟ees鈥� the needle being inserted, but there is no real acupuncture going on.

Konrad Streitberger, an anaesthetist at the University of Heidelberg who
invented the placebo needle, believes it can inject rigour into acupuncture
research. 鈥淚t helps differentiate the physiological effects of the needle from
psychological effects,鈥� he says.

Streitberger鈥檚 team used the needle on patients with rotator cuff tendinitis,
a painful shoulder problem. Of 52 patients, 25 were given acupuncture and the
rest received the placebo. After eight sessions, the first group showed much
bigger improvements. Streitberger hopes to confirm the effect in trials with
patients suffering from other diseases.

Ted Kaptchuk of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at
Harvard Medical School describes the needle as a 鈥渃reative step forward鈥�. But he
would like to see a double-blind trial, in which neither the patient nor the
doctor knows who is getting the placebo. Doctors need to know the identity of
Streitberger鈥檚 needle to manipulate it properly.