The most recent Cochrane Review, published in 2020, looked at 28 studies. 13 studies looked at acupuncture and 15 looked at acupressure. It’s notable that the authors graded the quality of the acupuncture studies using a new system called a NICMAN Scale. This scale takes things into account such as the training of the persons performing the acupuncture or acupressure in the study, whether certain details of the acupuncture itself were reported (needle depth, diameter, stimulation) and whether or not the points used and number of treatments given were clinically relevant. This scale makes it possible to grade whether or not a study is of good quality from the point of view of acupuncture researchers because it includes items that would determine how clinically relevant the study was. An ideal acupuncture study would achieve a high grade on the NICMAN scale and would be well designed from a traditional clinical research point of view.