[Explanatory clinical trials and pragmatic clinical trials on clinical effective evaluation of acupuncture].

The concepts and relations of explanatory clinical trials and pragmatic clinical trials on randomized controlled trials of acupuncture are stated. The explanatory clinical trials and pragmatic clinical trials are different in the purpose of study, the controlled method, the treatment method and the solution problems. The explanatory clinical trials may enhance the understanding of the mechanism of a treatment; the findings of pragmatic clinical trials may be applied immediately in clinical practice. This paper explains that these clinical trials are of great importance to the methodology and practices of clinical effective evaluation of acupuncture based on TCM theory.