Off the back of the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) conference (2021), in this episode Nick and Spod will be discussing the current state of the evidence-base for acupuncture. 

They will be exploring questions including:

• Where is the evidence strongest and where is there potential?
• What are some of the key issues in the field such as placebo?
• Where does the future of acupuncture research lie?

References from the show:

Efficacy for chronic pain (MacPherson and Charlesworth, 2020; Vickers et al., 2018):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29198932/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33362893/

Efficacy for migraines (Zhao et al., 2017): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2603492

UK NICE guidelines chronic pain (National Institute for Clinical Excellence NICE, 2021):
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/evidence/acupuncture-in-people-with-chronic-primary-pain-pdf-9075291805

Acupuncture and mechanical placebos (Kaptchuk, 2020): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33362886/

Future directions for acupuncture research (Schnyer and Hullender Rubin, 2020): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33362894/

Acupuncture reducing risk of coronary heart disease in osteoarthritis patients (Ton et al., 2021):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32744906/

Acupuncture and anti-inflammatory pathways (Liu et al., 2020): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32791039/

Acupuncture for carpal tunnel syndrome (Maeda et al., 2017): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28334999/

Acupuncture and fibromyalgia RCT and neuroimaging (Mawla et al., 2021): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33314799/