Traditional Chinese acupuncture may help relieve pain from arthri-tis of the knee. But so could sham acupuncture, in which needles are inserted shallowly and outside the traditional meridian points. The key, according to a new clinical trial of 455 patients plus 72 controls, seems to be the attitude of the acupuncturist. While there was no significant difference between real and sham acupuncture-both provided more pain relief than no treatment at all-a positive treatment style produced better results than a neutral style. When the acupunctur-ist (genuine or pretend) told arthritis patients, Ive had a lot of success with treating knee pain, subjects reported greater pain relief than when told this may or may not work. Scientists said the findings suggest acupunctures ap-parent benefits may be partially medi-ated through placebo effects related to the behavior of the acupuncturistTO LEARN MORE: Arthritis Care & Research, Sep-tember 2010; abstract at nlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acr.20225/abstract
