Church Street Surgery, , Ware, Hertfordshire, UK.
Acupunct Med. 2014 Apr;32(2):186-9. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2013-010318. Epub 2013 Dec 2.
Controversy continues over whether or not there is any real effect from acupuncture over and above that of placebo. However, this series of case studies may provide us with evidence from an unlikely source. Anticipation of clinical benefit is a major element of placebo, and clearly cognition is needed to experience this. This raises the question of how much placebo effect is experienced by a patient with dementia. These cases document reliably witnessed responses to acupuncture in patients with impaired cognition, which have been reproducible and maintained. Given the similarity of responses, it could be argued that these reports provide evidence of a 'real' effect of acupuncture, and raise the possibility of including patients with dementia in formal studies from which they might routinely be excluded.
关于针刺是否除了安慰剂效应之外还有真正的效果，争议仍在继续。然而，这一系列病例研究可能会为我们提供一个意想不到的证据来源。对临床获益的预期是安慰剂的一个主要因素，显然需要认知才能体验到这一点。这就提出了一个问题，即痴呆症患者经历了多少安慰剂效应。这些病例记录了可靠地观察到的针刺反应，这些反应是可复制和持续的。鉴于反应的相似性，可以认为这些报告提供了针刺“真实”效果的证据，并提出了将痴呆症患者纳入正式研究的可能性，而这些患者通常会被排除在研究之外。
