How might acupuncture work? A systematic review of physiologic rationales from clinical trials

BACKGROUND: Scientific interest in acupuncture has led numerous investigators to conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of acupuncture for various conditions, but the mechanisms underlying acupuncture are poorly understood. METHODS: The author conducted a PubMed search to obtain a fair sample of acupuncture clinical trials published in English in 2005. Each article was reviewed for a physiologic rationale, as well as study objectives and outcomes, experimental and control interventions, country of origin, funding sources and journal type. RESULTS: Seventy-nine acupuncture clinical trials were identified. Twenty-six studies (33%) offered no physiologic rationale. Fifty-three studies (67%) posited a physiologic basis for acupuncture: 33 (62% of 53) proposed neurochemical mechanisms, 2 (4%) segmental nervous system effects, 6 (11%) autonomic nervous system regulation, 3 (6%) local effects, 5 (9%) effects on brain function and 5 (9%) other effects. No rationale was proposed for stroke; otherwise having a rationale was not associated with objective, positive or negative findings, means of intervention, country of origin, funding source or journal type. The dominant explanation for how acupuncture might work involves neurochemical responses and is not reported to be dependent on treatment objective, specific points, means or method of stimulation. CONCLUSION: Many acupuncture trials fail to offer a meaningful rationale, but proposing a rationale can help investigators to develop and test a causal hypothesis, choose an appropriate control and rule out placebo effects. Acupuncture may stimulate self-regulatory processes independent of the treatment objective, points, means or methods used; this would account for acupuncture's reported benefits in so many disparate pathologic conditions

Electroweak parameters of the z0 resonance and the standard model

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A direct search for neutralino production at LEP

This is the post-print version of the Article - Copyright @ 1990 Elsevier.A search has been performed for the production of neutralinos (χ, χ′) in e+e− annihilation at energies near the Z0 pole. No evidence for these particles was found either in searches for events with two acoplanar jets, low visible energy, and missing pt (sensitive to or in searches for single-photon events (sensitive to Z0→χχ′→χχγ). Model independent upper limits (at the 95% CL) on the branching ratio for the decay mode Z0 →χχ′ of a few 10−4 are obtained for most of the range of neutralino masses that is kinematically accessible at LEP energies. Upper limits on the mixing factor of neutralinos are also placed as a function of the neutralino masses.This study was supported by the US Dept. of Energy, US National Science Foundation, UK Science and Engineering Research Council, the A.P. Sloan Foundation, the Canadian National Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Israeli Ministry of Science, Minerva Gesellschaft, The Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the Monbusho International Science Research Program, the American-Israeli Bi-national Science Foundation, L'insitut de Recherche Fondamentale du Comissariat a L'Energie Atomique, and the Bundesministerium fur Forschng und Technologie