In reply
My colleagues and I would like to thank the authors for their comments. Indeed, we find ourselves in agreement with many of the points made. Barrett and London correctly argue that a demonstration of an intervention's effectiveness in the context of a randomized trial does not imply that it is immune from misuse in routine clinical practice. That said, real-world evaluations of acupuncture clinical practice do suggest that there is a relatively low incidence of adverse events related to delayed diagnosis or misplaced advice on medication.1