Reasonable and standard application of sham acupuncture control is the key to determine the quality of acupuncture clinical trials

and is also a difficult problem faced by acupuncture clinical research. The UK National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council jointly published the Applying Surgical Placebo in Randomised Evaluation(ASPIRE) guidelines on the application of placebo surgical operation in randomized evaluation

which includes 4 parts: rationale and ethics

design

conduct

and interpretation and translation

providing comprehensive guidance for the application of placebo controls in surgical trials. As an operational intervention

acupuncture is similar to surgery

so

ASPIRE guidelines can also provide certain guidance for the application of sham acupuncture. In the present paper

we introduce the ASPIRE guidelines

and put forward its enlightenment and reference to the application of sham acupuncture control in combination with retrospecting the current situations of sham acupuncture research. We hold that future studies should strengthen the consideration of the rationality and ethics of sham acupuncture

standardize the design of sham acupuncture control

and convey the information related to sham acupuncture to patients with appropriate descriptions.