This study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of acupuncture on chronic asthma. Twenty-nine volunteer chronic asthmatics were randomly allocated to receive a course of acupuncture at either correct or incorrect points. After a baseline pre-treatment monitoring period of one month, subjects received eight treatments over a 12-week period and were followed-up for six months. The results of daily monitoring indicated that both groups were stable during the baseline period, improved during the treatment stage, and were stable for five months subsequently. On analysis no statistically significant differences showed between the groups on these variables. However, the correctly treated group had no asthma episodes during the treatment period in contrast to the control group which had four (p = 0.11). This could suggest that correct acupuncture may have had a prophylactic effect. A review of trials of other asthma therapies indicates that the improvement seen in both groups was greater than that usually obtained with a placebo and may suggest that acupuncture generally has an enhancing effect on homeostasis.

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