Systematic reviews of acupuncture — are there problems with these?

In recent years, many systematic reviews of the clinical efficacy of acupuncture have been conducted. Almost every review found major problems with the quality of the clinical trials, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions about efficacy. The present paper explores a number of important issues involved in the design and conduct of systematic reviews of acupuncture. Examples are pointed out of mistakes in inclusion-exclusion criteria and …