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To the Editor.—I write on behalf of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA) regarding the comments of Dr Levit in the Medical News & Perspectives article on acupuncture.¹ The AAMA firmly agrees that allowing nonphysician acupuncturists who are "insufficiently trained in medicine" to treat patients may result in patients not receiving "adequate treatment." However, we believe that Levit may be misrepresenting important facts about the efficacy of acupuncture.

Levit asserts that acupuncture "works by suggestion" and states that "the concept of Qi is to medical science as astrology is to astronomy." With these statements, Levit ignores more than 3000 years of empirical evidence. Indeed, as reported in the article, a recent Consensus Statement on acupuncture at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "concluded that there is ‘clear evidence' of efficacy [of acupuncture]" for certain medical conditions.² "Acupuncture can cause multiple biological responses," including "activation of pathways affecting various . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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