Individual Differences in Responsiveness to Acupuncture: An Exploratory Survey of Practitioner Opinion.

Previous research has considered the impact of personal and situational factors on treatment responses. This article documents the first phase of a four-stage project on patient characteristics that may influence responsiveness to acupuncture treatment, reporting results from an exploratory practitioner survey. Acupuncture practitioners from various medical professions were recruited through professional organisations to complete an online survey about their demographics and attitudes as well as 60 questions on specific factors that might influence treatment.

Nonspecific Feelings Expected and Experienced during or Immediately after Electroacupuncture: A Pilot Study in a Teaching Situation.

Background: Some feelings elicited by acupuncture-type interventions are "nonspecific", interpretable as resulting from the placebo effect, our own self-healing capacities-or, indeed, the flow of qi. Expectation is thought to contribute to these nonspecific effects. Here we describe the use of two innovative 20-item questionnaires (EXPre and EXPost) in a teaching situation.