Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2002; 7: 103
Interest in placebo is increasing and recent research suggests that the therapeutic consequence of placebo is generated through mental processes in which attitudes are important. The aim of this study is therefore to explore attitudes and beliefs concerning placebo effect in acupuncture therapy, among doctors, patients and the acupuncturists.
From February 1994 to June 1995, four anonymous questionnaires were distributed among 1135 randomly selected doctors, 294 medical students, 492 acupuncturists and a random sample of 653 subjects in the general population in Norway.
From the questionnaires, 57% indicated the treatment effect seen in acupuncture as mainly a genuine acupuncture effect, 30% indicated that half of the effect in acupuncture comes from placebo, while 13% indicated that the treatment effect in acupuncture is based on placebo. Doctors and students express a more sceptical view than the others. However, having tried acupuncture for ones own disease makes ones attitude significantly less sceptical within all study groups. Attitudes to the use of acupuncture for cancer patients are associated with attitudes to placebo for the doctors and medical students, but not for the general population and the acupuncturists.
The majority of doctors and medical students indicate placebo to be the main contribution to the treatment effect of acupuncture, while the opposite view is more prevalent among the general population and the acupuncturists.
