There has been a concerning voice that placebo-controlled trials of acupuncture are reluctant to fully disclose the existence of placebo acupuncture control [3, 4]. However, findings of the current study show change of practice ever since, showing number of studies that accurately inform the use of placebo control, being more than a half: out of 70 placebo groups from 65 PILs, 40 were classified into FD category, and 12 of those 40 were from the older studies that were included in the previous review. These findings confirm that acupuncture trials are also trying to conform to the ethical requirements [31, 32]. However, at the same time, given that there is still a room for improvement in providing complete and accurate information about placebos even in trials assessing conventional medicine , and device-based interventions are facing challenges in maintaining blinding with a full disclosure of placebos , information disclosure in PIL may be taken as an issue in clinical research across the board.