Blinding Effect of Non-penetrating Sham Needle in the Randomized Controlled Trials of Acupuncture：A Systematic Review

The aim of this article was to assess the clinical evidence for or against the blinding effect of non-penetrating sham needle as placebo needle. This systematic review included randomized controlled trials（RCTs） of acupuncture taking non-penetrating sham acupuncture as placebo needle. Systematic searches were conducted in 13 electronic databases up to July 2012： Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, a Chinese medical database. All parallel or cross-over RCTs of acupuncture for the blinding effect of non-penetrating needle were chosen without language restrictions. Finally, totally 7 RCTs met the inclusion criteria. In conclusion, our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that the non-penetrating needle is an effective instrument for placebo control in the acupuncture RCTs.