Acupuncture does not work and has no place in science-based medicine.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2026 · PMC13167738 · PMID 42096307

Europe PMC DOI

hedged sentence

—

closest p

—

boldest claim

The sentences

highly significantno p-value reported

Nevertheless, some carefully designed trials with adequate controls and sham acupuncture treatments have been published ( 2 – 6 ) and these have given unambiguous results: The placebo effect is indeed highly significant, while the difference between real and sham acupuncture is negligible ( 3 – 5 ).

also in 132,142 other papers

Quoted from the open-access full text in Europe PMC under the licence the publisher applied. The sentence is reproduced exactly as published; the emphasis is ours.