by Kate Henderson, L.Ac.

A problem for finding definitive evidence of acupuncture’s efficacy is that there is a lack of satisfactory research on its function. Much of the research that has been done is in the form of a “case study” which only observes one person receiving treatment, what their response was to it, if there was clinical improvement, etc. There are often no control groups or double blind studies which make it difficult to pinpoint if it was the acupuncture that worked or placebo.

After many years of neglect—if not outright skepticism—more rigorous research is being done in the West. But another problem is that the method of diagnosis is completely different in CM than in Western medical diagnosis. An MD may choose 10 patients for an acupuncture study that are all diagnosed with Diabetes. However, there is no “Diabetes” recognized in the theories of Chinese Medicine: people are diagnosed by their individual signs and symptoms which are highly idiosyncratic. And, because in many disorders there are many sets of symptoms that don’t all occur in the same way in different people, these ten diabetic patients may possibly all have a different CM diagnosis and, in true CM, would have ten different treatments prescribed for them. This does not allow for solid, consistent observation of how the treatment is working according to Western scientific methods, because it is not a standardized treatment for “Diabetes” (as a single, one-size-fits-all disorder as conceptualized by Western medicine).

Essentially, Western medicine focuses on cause and effect in research and treatment, and puts much emphasis on finding one method of action/reaction and then replicating the same result with a treatment to prove that it is valid. Chinese medicine is not focused on replicating the same result, as it sees each patient as a whole and concerns itself with regulating an entire system. Every patient is different, and the pattern of their particular disharmony is individual and treated as such.
Even so, acupuncturists, MDs and scientific researchers are working on ways around this translation problem to find a consistent protocol for testing acupuncture and demonstrating its effects. Through formulating suitable methods for capturing and demonstrating acupuncture’s these positive effects according to Western diagnostic and clinical standards remains a challenge, good studies have been done on pain management, neuropathy, infertility, osteoarthritis of the joints, drug addiction treatment and other disorders.
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