Relaxing Effects of Acupuncture, Sham Acupuncture or no Acupuncture, Given by Therapists Delivering Positive or Neutral Communication Regarding Expected Effects

Background: The communication between a patient and clinician may have significant effects on treatment outcomes and one likely mediator of the communication-related treatment effects is patient expectations, as demonstrated by placebo studies in various clinical domains. To investigate the link between patient-clinician interactions and patient expectancy in a clinical setting, acupuncture is suggested an effective method, as acupuncture is a procedure with known non-specific treatment components. As a scene for investigating the importance of expectations on treatment outcomes, the investigators used acupuncture for relaxation effects. It is commonly reported that participants experience a sense of relaxation during acupuncture treatment, yet, it is not known if the effects are related to the specific effects of needling or non-specific effects associated with the treatment procedure.

Aim: To investigate if communication type (positive or neutral) about the expected treatment outcome affected i) participants' expectations, ii) short-term relaxation effects in response to genuine or sham acupuncture or to rest, and to investigate if treatment expectations were related to outcome.

Procedure: Volunteers, i.e. Swedish individuals in general, not part of any specific patient group, are given written and oral study information and are screened for study criteria. The volunteers giving informed consent are blinded randomized, by use of a computerized random table, to one treatment session a´30 minutes with a) genuine manual acupuncture delivered to the traditional acupuncture point PC6 or b) sham acupuncture delivered to a sham acupuncture point at the double distance to the wrist compared to the PC6, using telescopic non-penetrating needles. The acupuncture treatments (genuine or sham) was given by one of nine physiotherapists.

They are compared to a non-randomized reference group that receive no acupuncture, just a treatment of 30 minutes of rest, given by one of three physiotherapists according to a standardized treatment protocol.

Within the three groups (genuine acupuncture, sham acupuncture or no acupuncture, just rest), the participants are randomized to 1) positive communication or 2) neutral communication from therapists according to a standardized treatment protocol, regarding expected treatment effects.