A report published in the prestigious New Zealand Medical Journal has attacked acupuncture businesses for widespread abuse of rules around advertising claims.



Report author Daniel Ryan, who is a member of the Society for Science Based Healthcare, also said ACC should withdraw funding for acupuncture treatments because they don't work and they are now costing taxpayers $33 million a year.



But Acupuncture New Zealand spokeswoman Kate Roberts said some claims in the report were "wildly inaccurate". She said it was "absurd" that it had got through the editorial and peer review process and into the journal. In an emailed response, Ryan said: "Of course they would say there were mistakes. I've backed up all my statements and it passed peer review with flying colours. But if they see problems with my paper they can submit this to the journal."

Only qualifying members of voluntary bodies Acupuncture NZ (about 600) or the NZ Acupuncture Standards Authority (about 300) can access ACC funding subsidies.

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JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Acupuncturists got $33 million in treatment subsidies from ACC over the last financial year.

Ryan searched acupuncture business websites in New Zealand for illegal claims that acupuncture can treat or prevent serious conditions.

Section 58(1)(a) of the Medicines Act bans any advertisements that claim a treatment can "prevent, mitigate or cure" from a list of about 40 named serious conditions.

Ryan found that for the 101 included websites, the three most frequent claims were around the treatment or prevention of mental illness, infertility and arthritis (all on the list).

Combined, these claims appeared on 73 per cent of the websites. He also found 11 per cent of sites claimed acupuncture could treat or prevent cancer, 23 per cent made diabetes claims, 19 per cent targeted thrombosis and 14 per cent offered help for heart disease.

Ryan said ACC subsidises acupuncture treatments at $67 an hour. He said ACC spent $33.2 million on acupuncture claims in the 2016/17 financial year and a total of $210 million had been spent over the last decade.

Ryan said the best scientific evidence suggested acupuncture was "no more than a theatrical placebo".

"We need to ensure that taxpayers' money is only used to pay for evidence-based treatments," he said. "The government needs to review its funding of acupuncture and stop wasting money."

He called for the two acupuncture professional bodies to revoke practising certificates from acupuncturists which made advertising claims that breached Section 58 of the Medicines Act. Without the practising certificates, the acupuncturists couldn't access ACC money.

But Roberts said Acupuncture NZ wouldn't do that.

"The only reason we would remove someone's practising certificate is if they were in breach of gross misconduct - so if there were complaints about the actual treatment being provided. We wouldn't remove someone's certificate just for some complaints on what's on their website. We would continue to work with them to improve the website."

Roberts said Ryan had provided a spreadsheet of sites breaking the rules. Those members were contacted and "I would say 80 per cent have updated their sites to be in line with current research knowledge and legislative requirements".

"There are some websites that do make claims for curing conditions and we have always said that is inappropriate, and we have developed advertising standards with the Advertising Standards Authority. We are working hard with members to get them to that level of compliance."

Roberts said Ryan was also a member of the Skeptics Society and the report was part of a "witch hunt" against acupuncture that was "tiresome, often misinformed and misleading".

"They say acupuncture has no evidence base, but that's absolutely incorrect. There are huge numbers of systematic reviews on acupuncture proving that it is a good treatment for many conditions and that is why it is in 1000 clinical guidelines worldwide."

In the report, Ryan said before the study there had been more than a dozen successful complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority about misleading acupuncture advertisements. The study was help find out how widespread the issue was.