Is acupuncture a placebo therapy?

Complementary therapies such as acupuncture are suggested to have enhanced placebo effects. Numerous high quality randomized controlled trials found that acupuncture is no better than its placebo control; however, patients in both real and sham acupuncture groups report clinically meaningful symptom improvements. A possible interpretation of these trials is that acupuncture acts entirely by engaging placebo mechanisms. This article provides further evidence supporting that acupuncture might be a potent placebo, and explains how to address major concerns following this suggestion.