Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Letters

Acupuncture for ‘frequent attenders’ with medically unexplained symptoms

Euan M Lawson
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (589): 492. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp11X588286
Euan M Lawson
Greenmantle, Marthwaite, Sedbergh, Cumbria, LA10 5HT. E-mail:
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: euanlawson@googlemail.com
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

The lively presentational style of the revamped Journal is welcome, and the new concise and accessible approach to research will certainly help time-pressed clinicians. However, there is an uncomfortable tension between the need to present data to busy practitioners in an easily digestible format and gross-oversimplification that risks the misinterpretation of data. The Editor seems to have fallen into this trap with Paterson et al's study on acupuncture with medically unexplained symptoms.1

The study is riddled with bias in a number of key areas including participant selection and the unblinded intervention. The construction of the study lends itself to a positive result and there is little value in conducting acupuncture studies without adjusting for this bias by using some kind of sham treatment. The authors do discuss the ‘black-box’ effect of the intervention and this does raise the unfortunate, but in this case appropriate, image of a terrible crash that needs careful post-disaster investigation. Even given the obvious bias, the effect was small and the graphs presented in the full-length article,1 sadly missing in the print version, made this abundantly clear.

The BJGP has done a disservice to the communication of science, and the uncritical message, propagated through the RCGP, of the effectiveness of acupuncture in this study simply doesn't stand up to any reasonable scrutiny. Thanks to the BJGP press release, the national print media picked up on the story and ran it uncritically in the true spirit of modern ‘churnalism’.2 Pragmatic studies need pragmatic interpretation and shouldn't develop into publicity campaigns that can be boiled down to 140 characters. Ironically, it is subsequently through Twitter and the blogosphere that the damage to the reputation of the BJGP has been done.3 I recognise the need to make research palatable but the headline front-cover conclusion printed by the BJGP is ill-judged and owes more to a tabloid approach to journalism than any sober consideration of the true nature of the findings in this study.

  • © British Journal of General Practice 2011

REFERENCES

  1. ↵
    1. Paterson C,
    2. Taylor RS,
    3. Griffiths P,
    4. et al.
    (2011) Acupuncture for ‘frequent attenders’ with medically unexplained symptoms: a randomised controlled trial (CACTUS study). Br J Gen Pract, DOI: 10.3399/bjgp11X572689.
  2. ↵
    1. Hope J
    (2011) Why GPs should be prescribing acupuncture to patients branded hypochondriacs. Daily Mail, 30 May: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1392181/Accupuncture-help-millions-patients-unexplained-symptoms.html (accessed 11 Jul 2011).
  3. ↵
    1. Colquhoun D
    Acupuncturists show that acupuncture doesn't work, but conclude the opposite: journal fails. DC's Improbable Science, http://www.dcscience.net/?p=4439. (accessed 11 Jul 2011).
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 61 (589)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 61, Issue 589
August 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Acupuncture for ‘frequent attenders’ with medically unexplained symptoms
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Acupuncture for ‘frequent attenders’ with medically unexplained symptoms
Euan M Lawson
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (589): 492. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp11X588286

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Acupuncture for ‘frequent attenders’ with medically unexplained symptoms
Euan M Lawson
British Journal of General Practice 2011; 61 (589): 492. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp11X588286
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • REFERENCES
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • GPs’ understanding of the wider workforce in primary care
  • 2020 vision? A retrospective study of time-bound curative claims in British and Irish newspapers
  • Verschlimmbesserung
Show more Letters

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2022 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242