플라세보 약침에 대한 무작위배정 임상시험

Randomized Clinical Trials of Herbal Acupuncture for Placebo Control

Objectives : This study was designed to find out whether normal saline(NS) acupuncture is able to be constituted as an appropriate control group for Cervi Cornu Parvum herbal acupuncture(CC). Methods : NS and CC were injected into Quchi($LI_{11}$) of the subjects. The subjects completed a questionnaire rating the intensity of 21 kinds of acupuncture sensation(hurting, penetrating, sharp, aching, intense, spreading, radiating, tingling, pricking, stinging, pulling, heavy, dull, numb, electric, shocking, hot, burning, cool, pulsing, and throbbing) and side effects. We compared subjective evaluations of acupuncture sensation and side effects between two groups. Results : As for CC most of the acupuncture sensation items were not significantly different from NS especially in less acupuncture-experienced subjects(average 2, below 10 time experiences) rather than more acupuncture-experienced subjects(above 10 time experiences). Conclusions : We found that NS might be an appropriate placebo herbal acupuncture for CC in small amount of acupuncture-experienced subjects. Further study is needed for new placebo herbal acupuncture for CC in more acupuncture-experienced subjects.