I was very disappointed by my recent preceptor, who's pretty good with practicing evidence-based medicine (even when it contradicts the current trends), at recommending an unproven treatment to a patient. We had a patient with reflux disease who was well-controlled with a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI). He suggested that acupuncture might be a good alternative. Then went on to describe this study, in which patients who failed standard therapy with a PPI were randomized into one group that received a double-dose of PPI and another group that received acupuncture in addition to the standard dose. Surprise, surprise, the acupuncture group got better. This is a terrible study that is doing nothing but comparing apples to oranges. First of all, if patients failed standard therapy, the chances of failing a double dose is pretty damn high. Second, where is the control for acupuncture? How do we not know that the acupuncture group is getting a placebo effect? They could have easily placed needles in the wrong places as a control. Third, this doesn't even apply to the patient we were talking to, she was responding to PPIs. Overall, terrible advice by an otherwise well-informed doctor. At least he described the methods to the patient. Luckily, the patient preferred sticking to her trusty PPI.
The one thing I learned from the paper: In the UK, GERD is called GORD (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease).
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