***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Auricular acupuncture can be an effective treatment for acute anxiety , but there is a lack of direct comparisons of acupuncture to proven st and ard drug treatments . In this study we compared the efficacy of auricular acupuncture with intranasal midazolam , placebo acupuncture , and no treatment for reducing dental anxiety .  Patients having dental extraction s ( n = 67 ) were r and omized to ( i ) auricular acupuncture , ( ii ) placebo acupuncture , and ( iii ) intranasal midazolam and compared with a no treatment group .  Anxiety was assessed before the interventions , at 30 min , and after the dental extraction . Physiological variables were assessed continuously . With the no treatment group as control , the auricular acupuncture group , and the midazolam group were significantly less anxious at 30 min as compared with patients in the placebo acupuncture group ( Spielberger Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory X1 , P = 0.012 and < 0.001 , respectively ) . In addition , patient compliance assessed by the dentist was significantly improved if auricular acupuncture or application of intranasal midazolam had been performed ( P = 0.032 and 0.049 , respectively ) . In conclusion , both , auricular acupuncture and intranasal midazolam were similarly effective for the treatment of dental anxiety Acupuncture is one of the most widely used and broadly research ed of the complementary and alternative therapies , but high- quality trials generally show no benefit over sham acupuncture . Many would view this result as evidence of ineffectiveness for this intervention . This discussion article focuses on the report of a large multicenter r and omized controlled trial of  acupuncture for chronic low-back pain ( CLBP ) in the lay and academic press , the ensuing discussion , and its impact on both clinical practice and service provision . The authors suggest that interpretive bias has affected reporting , leading to question able conclusions and advocacy in favor of this form of care that may exceed the evidence . They also suggest that a lack of underst and ing of research into the placebo effect may have contributed to confusion in the interpretation of these trials Background : Auricular acupuncture is a promising method for postoperative pain relief . However , there is no evidence for its use after ambulatory surgery . Our aim was to test whether auricular acupuncture is better than invasive needle control for complementary analgesia after ambulatory knee surgery . Methods : One hundred and twenty patients undergoing ambulatory arthroscopic knee surgery under st and ardized general anesthesia were r and omly assigned to receive auricular acupuncture or a control procedure . Fixed indwelling acupuncture needles were inserted before surgery and retained in situ until the following morning . Postoperative rescue analgesia was directed to achieve pain intensity less than 40 mm on a 100-mm visual analogue scale . The primary outcome measure was the postoperative requirement for ibuprofen between surgery and examination the following morning . Results : Intention-to-treat analysis showed that patients from the control group ( n = 59 ) required more ibuprofen than patients from the auricular acupuncture group ( n = 61 ) : median ( interquartile range ) 600 ( 200–800 ) v. 200 ( 0–600 ) mg ( p = 0.012 ) . Pain intensity on a visual analogue scale was similar in both groups at all time points registered . The majority of patients in both groups believed that they had received true acupuncture and wanted to repeat it in future . Interpretation : Auricular acupuncture reduced the requirement for ibuprofen after ambulatory knee surgery relative to an invasive needle control procedure In alternative health care iridology is used as a diagnostic aid . The diagnosis of gall bladder disease was used to study its validity and interperformer consistency . The presence of an inflamed gall bladder containing gall stones is said to be easily recognised by certain signs in the lower lateral part of the iris of the right eye . Stereo colour slides were made of the right eye . Stereo colour slides were made of the right eye of 39 patients with this disease and 39 control subjects of the same sex and age . The slides were presented in a r and om order to five leading iridologists without supplementary information . The prevalence of the disease was estimated at 56 % . The median validity was 51 % with 54 % sensitivity and 52 % specificity . These results were close to chance validity ( iota = 0.03 ) . None of the iridologists reached a high validity . The median interperformer consistency was 60 % . This was only slightly higher than chance consistency ( kappa = 0.18 ) . This study showed that iridology is not a useful diagnostic aid OBJECTIVES Reflexology is an increasingly popular complementary therapy in which parts of the body are deemed to be represented on the soles of the feet . The aim of this study was to investigate whether this representation can be used as a valid method of diagnosis . METHODS Three experienced reflexologists took part in this study . Eighteen adults with one or more of six specified conditions were identified from primary care records .  Two reflexologists , who were blinded to the patients ' conditions and monitored , then examined each patient 's feet and rated the probability that each of the six conditions was present . RESULTS There is little evidence that the distribution of ratings vary with the status of the condition . Receiver operating curves suggest that this diagnostic method is very poor at distinguishing between the presence and absence of conditions . Inter-rater reliability ( kappa ) scores were very low , providing no evidence of agreement between the examiners . CONCLUSION Despite certain limitations to the data provided by this study , the results do not suggest that reflexology techniques are a valid method of diagnosis Iridology is an analysis of health based on examination of the iris of the eye . One hundred forty-three patients had photographs taken of both eyes . Nine-five patients were free of kidney disease , defined as a creatinine level of less than 1.2 mg/dL ( mean , 0.8 mg/dL ) , and 48 had kidney disease severe enough to raise the plasma creatinine level to 1.5 mg/dL or greater ( mean , 6.5 mg/dL ) . Three ophthalmologists and three iridologists viewed the slides in a r and omized sequence without knowledge of the number of patients in the two categories or any information about patient history . Iridology had no clinical or statistically significant ability to detect the presence of kidney disease .  Iridology was neither selective nor specific , and the likelihood of correct detection was statistically no better than chance 
    Output:
    
Where this is the case , it is suggested that subjecting these therapies to empirical evaluation may be tantamount to evaluating the absurd