Chinese Doctors Poke Holes in Australian Study

Chinese Doctors Poke Holes in Australian Study

By Bill Reddy, LAc, Dipl. Ac.

Editor's Note: In addition to this interview, you can find several resources regarding this study at www.acupuncturetoday.com, including a PDF of the Australian study published in JAMA, an article in response to the flaws seen in this study, the Letter to the Editor of JAMA referenced in this interview and a complaint letter from the Traditional Chinese Medicine American Alumni Association (TCMAAA).

For more information about the TCMAAA, contact: Selene Hausman, LAc at 480-510-2259 or via email at seleneph@gmail.com .

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A recent Australian clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2014 by Rana Hinman, et el., evaluating the effectiveness of both needle and laser acupuncture for chronic knee pain, caught the attention of Dr.'s Hongjian He, AP, MD, PhD; Lixing Lao, PhD, MB; Wing-Fai Yeung, BCM, PhD; and Yong Ming Li, MD, PhD. They were astonished to read that the conclusions of the study stated, "In patients older than 50 years with moderate or severe chronic knee pain, neither laser nor needle acupuncture conferred benefit over sham for pain or function. Our findings do not support acupuncture for these patients." Obviously, that statement didn't reflect their combined clinical experience. Upon further investigation, they felt there were serious design flaws in the study and wrote letters to the editor of JAMA expressing their concerns that were published in February 2015 along with the Australian researchers' responses.

AT: Gentlemen – Can you please introduce yourselves one at a time and provide our readers with your backgrounds?

Dr. Lixing Lao: I have trained in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China. I obtained my PhD in physiology in the University of Maryland in 1992, and had been appointed as an assistant professor, associate professor and professor at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine during my 21-year tenure from 1992 to 2013. I have been conducting acupuncture/TCM research in the U.S. until 2013, when I was appointed as the director of the University of Hong Kong School of Chinese Medicine. I have participated, conducted and designed a number of clinical trials on acupuncture including the trial of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis published in 2004 (Berman, Lao, et al., Annals of Internal Medicine, 2004).

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