@everyone and specifically Eric
there is a huge issue here no-one noticed
if stabbing rats with needles is what we are basing things on shouldn’t we scale up and stab people
with nails
just a fun thought
a needle to a rat is a fencing sword to us
trauma causes effects, nothing new here
r’Amen

I read the paper at the time it was covered at SBM (link provided by Orac above).
Have a read and see what you think.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/another-overhyped-acupuncture-study-misinterpreted/

Hint: It doesn’t show what the authors try to make you believe it shows.

Acupuncture works only if you define it out of existence.

There is no evidence of qi, meridians, or anything anatomically special about acupuncture points.
Clinical trials have demonstrated that it doesn’t matter where you stick the needles in, how far you stick them in, or even if you don’t stick them in.
What is left of acupuncture then?

Traumatising a mouse’s leg releases endorphins, yes, but what has that to do with acupuncture aside from the fact that you used a acupuncture needle to traumatise that poor mouse.

We discussed that paper quite a bit here, which is when I first learned to not trust interweb skeptics for intelligent critical discussions of acupuncture.

That thread ended up with people quibbling about whether it should be called ‘acupuncture’ because while the researchers indeed used acupuncture needles, it didn’t subscribe to or promote the specifics of the weird theory of Acupuncture (which, because of that interaction, I am now sure to capitalize to make the distinction for those who get caught up in such wordplay).

This is the second reference to the study on rats, I don’t recall any links to it previously. The only one I could find referred to elecro-acupuncture reducing neuropeptide Y, which is a compound associated with stress done in 2011 (Georgetown University). There have yet to be any follow up studies, and I could not find the specifics of the study size or any of the actual results.

If I have the wrong study please feel free to correct and point me in the right direction.

Also I think DavDoodles has hit the key point. It seems clear that inserting needles (especially with twisting or electricity attached) can reduce pain locally. But so does an ice pack, and the latter costs a wee bit less. This is why I am skeptical of its clinical relevance, but also a bit underwhelmed the the skeptical community’s attempts to dismiss all the effects as placebo. That just seems unlikely given the work in rats using needle insertion etc..

I think the auxilliary weirdness associated with acupuncture needle use (e.g., the theory of chi, and all that), that is, the larger theoretical edifice of Acupuncture (capital A), rightly puts off skeptics, but it sometimes dulls their critical faculties with claims that are largely independent of the weirdness.