This section of the site is intended for healthcare professionals and the public to help point you in the direction of the available evidence for acupuncture.

Whilst we support the principle of appropriate research in our field, there are issues you should bear in mind when you read it which pertain particularly :

  • the acupuncture treatment provided in trials often does not reflect the individualised treatment the majority of professional UK acupuncturists provide in practice
  • interventions designed to partially or completely control for 'placebo' effects are not necessarily physiologically inactive
  • separating out the components of any complex intervention is fraught with difficulty (Paterson & Dieppe 2005)

On the left we provide you with handouts which our students have put together to accompany their 2nd year assignment. These involved the students producing an evidence based presentation about acupuncture to be delivered to a particular patient/interest group. These may not be reproduced without the students' permission. Please contact Julie to obtain this: julie_ann.reynolds@yahoo.com

Current/new research:

The acupuncture research resource centre (ARRC) is a specialist resource for acupuncture research information funded by the British Acupuncture Council. Follow the link to their home page where you can contact them for information/advice. They also provide a list of the latest publications in the field.

The Journal of Chinese medicine provides critical summaries of the latest CM and acupuncture research. Click on 'Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture research' on the left of the home page. The section is organised by Western Medical condition, so is an ideal resource for health professionals.

Reviews/summaries:

ARRC also provide briefing papers on the following topics:

No 1 - June 1998: Migraine
No 2 - June 1998: Stroke
No 3 - October 1998: Arthritis
No 4 - September 1999: Gynaecology
No 5 - September 1999: Menopause
No 6 - February 2000: HIV Infection and TCM
No 7 - May 2000: Substance Abuse
No 8 - February 2002: Bronchial Asthma
No 9 - February 2002: Depression, Anxiety
No 10 - August 2004: Obstetrics (1)
No 11 - April 2005: Sports Injuries
No 12 - September 2006: Obstetrics (2)
Short Briefing Paper 1 - November 2006: Infertility

The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. At the time of writing it has 68 Cochrane reviews on acupuncture, 101 other reviews on acupuncture, and 2600 acupuncture trials listed.

The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (DARE) is another useful resource for reviews. It is a department of the University of York and is part of the National Institute for Health Research.