this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
834 points (98.7% liked)
Memes
45655 readers
1692 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Difficult to prove whether acupuncture is placebo or not, because you can't really make a control group believe that they've been poked with needles without actually poking them with needles.
But at the very least, you are poking people with needles, so unlike homeopathy, it will have some non-placebo effect. The question is rather whether that's the medicinal effect you're trying to achieve.
Having said that, I've had acupuncture, because my mum dragged me there. I was not convinced that it'd help, yet it did reduce pain. That still does not fully exclude the possibility of a placebo effect, but it seems rather unlikely to me either way.
You could let the control group be poked at random places instead of whatever the acupuncture manual says.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture-what-you-need-to-know
So you can spend 10 minutes to an hour getting poked with needles or you can just pop an ibuprofen.