[btilly]

Actually the best current evidence is that acupuncture does bring real pain relief: http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/back_pain.htm

That said, most of its relieving effect is due to the placebo effect, and there is no evidence saying that it can do anything for you other than possibly reduce pain.

[meric]

"The sham acupuncture studies were double-blinded, meaning neither the researchers nor the participants knew who was receiving the real or the sham treatment. When looking at those studies, the reviewers found the differences in pain ratings showed a significant difference between the real acupuncture and the sham acupuncture groups, indicating that the benefit was not just due to the placebo effect."

How did you get "most of its relieving effect is due to the placebo effect" from the article?

[btilly]

I concluded that from several articles that I read on the way to picking that was as best representing current thought on the effectiveness of acupuncture.

There is still debate on whether real or fake acupuncture is better. (Studies have come down on both sides of this issue.) However pretty much everyone who has tried to study the subject has found that both real and fake acupuncture have a definite impact on pain. Frequently both will outperform conventional medicine. For a random example see http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealt....

From that I know that there is a readily measurable benefit to acupuncture, another readily measurable benefit to the placebo, and the difference between the two benefits is difficult to measure. Which leads me to conclude that most of the benefit from acupuncture is due to the placebo effect, and only (possibly) a little is because acupuncture itself is effective.