Background Streitberger and Park sham needles have been developed and used as non-penetrating sham acupuncture needles that can be blinded in randomized controlled clinical trials assessing the efficacy of acupuncture. Ideal sham acupuncture should not be distinguishable from an actual acupuncture treatment provided to the experimental group to ensure patient blinding; additionally, it should not have any physiological or biological effect. Providing evidence for such sophisticated sham acupuncture devices is critical, as control settings in clinical studies are based on research verifying their validity.
Methods Three core electronic databases - PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials - will be used to search for validity verification studies of sham acupuncture devices. Clinical studies that verify the validity of non-penetrating sham acupuncture devices will be included in the review.
Results The study design, participant information, experimental and control groups, study population’s experience with acupuncture, outcome variables, and results of studies that verify the validity of sham acupuncture devices will be systematically reviewed.
Conclusion This systematic review of validity verification studies of sham acupuncture devices is expected to help the development of more sophisticated sham acupuncture, as well as the design of studies verifying its validity in the future.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
A systematic review of sham acupuncture validation studies Sung Min Lim, Eunji Go BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
Background This study aimed to analyze the trends in Korean patents for sham acupuncture.
Methods The electronic database of the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service was searched for Korean patents for sham acupuncture from inception till September 2020. Patents, which were not related to sham acupuncture, were excluded. The applicant, application date, International Patent Classification, and technological content of sham acupuncture were analyzed.
Results This study included eight patents. Application analysis identified the following sham acupuncture types: four (50%), two (25%), and two (25%) patents were for non-penetrating sham acupuncture, electronic sham acupuncture, and patch sham acupuncture, respectively. All patents aimed to use sham acupuncture as a control for rigorous double-blind clinical trials to verify the efficacy of real acupuncture treatment.
Conclusion The present findings suggest that technological advances were focused on developing various types of sham acupuncture methods for double-blind studies. Further large-scale studies using rigorous designs are needed to investigate new sham acupuncture applications.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Validation of a New Sham Acupuncture Needle for Double-Blind Trials: A Study Protocol Sung Min Lim Perspectives on Integrative Medicine.2024; 3(1): 57. CrossRef
A systematic review of sham acupuncture validation studies Sung Min Lim, Eunji Go BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
Trends in the Development of Acupuncture-Related Technologies Based on Patents in South Korea Sung Min Lim, Eunji Go, Carmen Mannucci Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medic.2024; 2024: 1. CrossRef
Systematic Review Protocol for Sham Acupuncture Validation Research Sung Min Lim Perspectives on Integrative Medicine.2023; 2(2): 131. CrossRef