Writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine German researchers report on the largest sham-controlled trial of acupuncture in seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) performed to date.
In it 422 people were randomly assigned to receive treatment with real acupuncture plus what was called ” rescue medication” (RM) with cetirizine if needed, or sham acupuncture (gentle needling of points that were not recognised as acupuncture points) plus RM if needed, or RM alone.