Genuine and placebo acupuncture equally effective for nausea

Simulated needles are just as effective as real acupuncture for treating nausea due to cancer treatment like radiotherapy. The beneficial placebo effect is recounted in a research study from Karolinska Institute and Linkoping University in Sweden. Patients who received no acupuncture, real or placebo, suffered significantly more nausea than the others in the study.

“The beneficial effects seem not to come from the traditional acupuncture method, but probably from the patients’ positive expectations and the extra care that the treatment entails,” says Ann Enblom, physiotherapist and researcher. “The patients communicated with the physiotherapists administering the acupuncture, received tactile stimulation and were given extra time for rest and relaxation.”

Results from the study showed significantly less nausea in the patients who received genuine or simulated acupuncture than those who received standard care only. No differences were found in those two groups however. The patients expectations were important for the effect to work. Up to 81% of those who expected to feel ill did so.

“It’s important to remember that the effects of the treatment are valuable to the patients, even if they can be said to have been caused by unspecific factors, such as the manner in which the patients were taken care of and their positive expectations,” says Dr. Enblom. “So our next step is to study which part of the acupuncture procedure actually are of importance, to make possible the use of those components to further increase quality of care.”

Source: Karolinska Institutet, ScienceDaily