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"in the case of acupuncture it is difficult to imagine how patients can be shielded from knowing whether they are in the experimental or control group"
That's actually the easy part and has been done by simply blindfolding the subjects (study by Lixing Lao). The participants were questioned thereafter and it seems that the fake acupuncture had been fairly successful in tricking the participants. The hard part is blinding those who are administering the sham procedure. They would obviously know what they're doing.
Permalink Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:34:00 UTC | #443713