Conclusions. The retractable non-invasive needle seems to have reasonably good capability of blinding patients and is more successful in acupuncture-naive subjects than in experienced ones. The failure to produce similar sensation of stimulation in the sham acupuncture group may be the major reason for incomplete blinding. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / Design, participants and outcomes. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 398 acupuncture-naive subjects and 197 acupuncture-experienced subjects who were recruited from the outpatients clinic of a university hospital in China. Acupuncture-naive and experienced subjects were randomized separately to receive the real acupuncture treatment or the placebo acupuncture at acupoint Hegu on the left hand. After the intervention, the percentage of patients who thought they had received real acupuncture was compared between the real and sham acupuncture groups. We defined the degree of blinding as 100% minus the difference in the percentage between the two groups. The score of pain, soreness, numbness, heaviness and distension during the treatment was also compared between the two groups. / Introduction. The newly designed retractable needle which can be used to produce non-invasive placebo or (sham) acupuncture seems promising and has been used in clinical trials. Several studies investigated the credibility of the retractable needle in blinding patients. These studies are generally small and mostly in acupuncture-naive patients and mainly focused on the difference in acupuncture-related sensations rather than the successfulness of blinding. / Objectives. To quantify the degree of blinding of the retractable non-invasive placebo needle in blinding both acupuncture-naive and experienced subjects in clinical trials and to explore possible reasons for incomplete blinding of the sham needle. / Results. In acupuncture-naive subjects, the percentage of those who thought they had received real acupuncture was 70.4% and 42.7% respectively in the real and sham acupuncture groups. The degree of blinding was 72.3% (95% CI: 62.9%, 81.7%). In acupuncture-experienced subjects, the degree of blinding was 58.9 (95% CI: 46.2%, 71.6%). The difference in degree of blinding between acupuncture-naive and experienced subjects was statistically significant (P<0.05). The score of pain, soreness, numbness, heaviness and distension in the real acupuncture group was all statistically significantly higher than that in the sham acupuncture group in both acupuncture-naive and experienced subjects (P<0.001). / Zhang Hongwei. / "February 2005." / Adviser: Jin Ling Tang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: B, page: 0161. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-102). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_343629 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Contributors | Zhang, Hongwei., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Medical Sciences. |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, theses |
| Format | electronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (xiii, 136 p. : ill.) |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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