CRD Summary: This review evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture in gastrointestinal diseases and concluded that improved quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome may be explained by unspecific effects of acupuncture. Similar effects in inflammatory bowel disease may be found in clinical scores. Given methodological limitations of the review and the relatively small amount of poor-quality evidence, the conclusions appear overly optimistic.

CRD Commentary: The review question was defined in terms of the interventions, participants and broad study designs of interest. The search for relevant papers covered only a single database and follow-up of references and appeared to be restricted to published studies written in English, German and French, so it was possible that relevant studies were missed. It was also unclear whether attempts were made to minimise the potential for errors and bias in the selection of studies for the review. The authors stated that they assessed validity according to predefined criteria. Some aspects of this assessment were presented alongside other study characteristics in the text and tables of the review. The use of a narrative synthesis appeared appropriate given the clinical heterogeneity of the included studies. Given the limitations and the relatively small amount of poor-quality evidence found in the review, the authors conclusions appeared to be overly optimistic.