Having some time to kill in the airport while waiting for a delayed flight,
I turned up some articles about acupuncture (Thanx and a tip o' the hat to
Google Scholar) that may be of some interest.  Note that all were published
after the publication of the NIH consensus statment.

Acupuncture: An Evidence-Based Review of the Clinical Literature

David J. Mayer, Ann. Rev. Med. 51 (2000) 49.

This chapter reviews the experimental literature on the effects of
acupuncture treatment. The review covers the 14 medical conditions for which
the National Institutes of Health Acupuncture Consensus Development Panel
(NIHCDP) concluded that acupuncture either is effective (2 conditions) or may
be useful (12 conditions). My conclusions partially support those of the
NIHCDP. There is evidence that acupuncture is effective for the treatment
of postoperative and chemotherapyinduced nausea and vomiting. Also, some data
indicate that acupuncture may be useful for headache, low back pain, alcohol
dependence, and paralysis resulting from stroke (4 of the 12 conditions
for which the NIHCDP found that acupuncture may be useful). For most of
the remaining conditions, there is little evidence that acupuncture is
either effective or ineffective. It is recommended that workers in the
field design double blind, sham controlled trials using adequate acupuncture
treatment regimens, with specific hypotheses, and sample sizes sufficient
to allow both positive and negative conclusions.

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Efficacy of Acupuncture as a Treatment for Tinnitus: A Systematic Review

Jongbae Park et al., Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 126 (2000) 489.

Conclusion  Acupuncture has not been demonstrated to be efficacious as a
treatment for tinnitus on the evidence of rigorous randomized controlled
trials.

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Does Acupuncture Improve Motor Recovery After Stroke? A Meta-Analysis of
Randomized Controlled Trials
Frank Kai-hoi Sze et al., Stroke 33 (2002) 2604

Conclusions This meta-analysis suggests that with stroke rehabilitation,
acupuncture has no additional effect on motor recovery but has a small
positive effect on disability, which may be due to a true placebo effect
and varied study quality. The efficacy of acupuncture without stroke
rehabilitation remains uncertain, mainly because of the poor quality of
such studies.

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Needle acupuncture in chronic poststroke leg spasticity

Matthias Fink et al., Arch. Phys. Med. Rehab. 85 (2004) 667.

Results
There was no demonstrated beneficial clinical effects from verum acupuncture.
After 4 weeks of treatment, mean MAS score was 3.3ñ+/- 0.9 in the placebo
group versus 3.3ñ+/- 1.1 in the verum group. The neurophysiologic measure of
H-reflex indicated a significant increase of spinal motoneuron excitability
after verum acupuncture (H-response/M-response ratio: placebo, .39 +/-ñ.19;
verum, .68ñ+/- .41; P<.05).

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A critical analysis of randomised clinical trials on neck pain and treatment
efficacy. A review of the literature.
G. V. Kjellman et al., Scand. J. Rehabil. Med. 31 (1999) 139.

The efficacy of physiotherapy or chiropractic treatment for patients with
neck pain was analysed by reviewing 27 randomised clinical trials published
196-1995. Three different methods were employed: systematic analyses of;
methodological quality; comparison of effect size; analysis of inclusion
criteria, intervention and outcome according to The Disablement Process model.
The quality of most of the studies was low; only one-third scored 50 or more
of a possible 100 points. Positive outcomes were noted for 18 of the
investigations, and the methodological quality was high in studies using
electromagnetic therapy, manipulation, or active physiotherapy. High
methodological quality was also noted in studies with traction and
acupuncture, however, the interventions had either no effect or a negative
effect on outcome. Pooling data and calculation of effect size showed that
treatments used in the studies were effective for pain, range of motion,
and activities of daily living. Inclusion criteria, intervention, and
outcome were based on impairment in most of the analysed investigations.
Broader outcome assessments probably would have revealed relationships
between treatment effect and impairment, functional limitation and disability.

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Richard Schultz                              schultr@mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
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"an optimist is a guy/ that has never had/ much experience"