Clinical acupuncture research in the West

Abstract

In recent years, acupuncture has rapidly become part of mainstream medicine in the West, where new developments in acupuncture clinical research show extensive progress in evaluating the efficacy and safety of the modality in many categories of disease, especially in pain conditions. Although challenges and difficulties remain, the acupuncture research community has matured and its past experience may lead to even better methods and more innovative research.

Keywords

acupuncture / clinical research / research methodology / the West

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Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by the Shanghai Natural Science and Technology Foundation (10ZR142880) and the 973 Program of China (2009CB522901). We would like to thank Dr. Lyn Lowry of the Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, for her editorial support.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg