Studies showing pain relief for conditions such as fibromyalgia, menstrual cramps, and tennis elbow were cited as illustrating the case for acupuncture as having a general effect in achieving pain reduction. Although some professionals and members of the public may be startled at the small number of conditions for which acupuncture was described as being efficacious, it should be remembered that the standard for clinical efficacy is an extraordinarily high one in terms of the quantity and quality of the research product required to establish it. This second question addressed the place of acupuncture in clinical practice. This is a broader question than that of efficacy and the standard is accordingly lower. The safety of acupuncture and the fact that there are very few adverse effects associated with treatment was pointed out.
Examples are postoperative pain and myofascial and low back pain.
Examples of disorders for which the research evidence is somewhat weaker, but for which there are clinical reports, include addiction, stroke rehabilitation, carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoarthritis, and headache. Because the question of mechanism are crucial from a biomedical perspective the panel devoted a substantial amount of discussion to this area. In brief, it was concluded that acupuncture can cause multiple biological responses, which are both specific and non-specific. The panel stated that although traditional models such as qi, the five phases and the channels are hard to reconcile with modern scientific perspectives, they continue to play an important part in practice. The panel dealt with a number of issues in this area.