Editing Acupuncture (section)

== Efficacy ==
{{as of|2021}}, many thousands of papers had been published on the efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of various adult health conditions, but there was no robust evidence it was beneficial for anything, except shoulder pain and [[fibromyalgia]].<ref name=sys0>{{cite journal |vauthors=Allen J, Mak SS, Begashaw M, Larkin J, Miake-Lye I, Beroes-Severin J, Olson J, Shekelle PG |title=Use of Acupuncture for Adult Health Conditions, 2013 to 2021: A Systematic Review |journal=JAMA Netw Open |volume=5 |issue=11 |pages=e2243665 |date=November 2022 |pmid=36416820 |doi=10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.43665 |pmc=9685495 |type=Systematic review |quote=Despite the large literature on acupuncture, most reviews concluded that their confidence in the effect was limited. }}</ref> For ''[[Science-Based Medicine]]'', [[Steven Novella]] wrote that the overall pattern of evidence was reminiscent of that for [[homeopathy]], compatible with the hypothesis that most, if not all, benefits were due to the [[placebo effect]], and strongly suggestive that acupuncture had no beneficial therapeutic effects at all.<ref name=sys>{{cite web |publisher=[[Science-Based Medicine]] |vauthors=Novella S |title=Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews of Acupuncture |date=14 December 2022 |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/systematic-review-of-systematic-reviews-of-acupuncture/ |access-date=15 December 2022 |archive-date=15 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215073724/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/systematic-review-of-systematic-reviews-of-acupuncture/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Harriet Hall]] noticed that according to [[Edzard Ernst]], systematic reviews agree that acupuncture works for neck pain, but not for every other pain&mdash;and that makes its whole enterprise suspicious.<ref name="b319">{{cite book | first=Harriet | last=Hall | editor-last1=Hupp | editor-first=Stephen | editor-last2=Santa Maria | editor-first2=Cara L. | title=Pseudoscience in Therapy: A Skeptical Field Guide | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2023 | isbn=978-1-316-51922-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NP-xEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA112 | access-date=8 March 2025 | pages=112–113}}</ref>