[Current situations about studies on the evaluation of clinical efficacy of acupuncture]

To evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture scientifically and objectively is a major issue for the development of acupuncture medicine. Although some progresses have already been gained in the research of the evaluation of clinical therapeutic effects of acupuncture at present, some problems as empirical evaluation method, following evaluation indexes of Western medicine, poorer quality of evaluation studies, etc. still exist. Thus, it is urgent to establish a reasonable evaluating system for acupuncture clinical efficacy which accords with the theory of acupuncture, embodies the characteristics and advantages of acupuncture clinic, perfecting the clinical evaluation method, and improving the quality of clinical efficacy evaluation and accelerating the sustainable development of acupuncture clinic. Through reasonable analysis on the current situations about the clinical evaluation research of acupuncture and combining some new concepts and methods, the authors of the present paper hold that the new evaluation system should embody the characteristic of the theory and clinical practice of acupuncture and fully make use of the methods of evidence-based medicine and some measuring scales. They also advocate trying to establish an "evidence-based-goal-attainment scale" method by combining standardized population evaluation with individualized diagnosis-treatment evaluation so as to enhance the international development of acupuncture.