A 45-year-old man with a 7-year history of low back pain asks his physician for a referral to a licensed acupuncturist. Acupuncture involves the insertion of fine metallic needles into the body at specific sites. Clinical trials of acupuncture for chronic low back pain have shown higher rates of symptom improvement with either acupuncture or sham acupuncture than with usual care.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMct0806114?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed