Is there a debate informed by decent evidence, though? As far as I know, no high-quality study has ever shown acupuncture to significantly outperform sham acupuncture, let alone outperform usual care. In my experience, studies cited by lay acupuncture advocates are usually either preliminary types of studies (uncontrolled or unsuitable control intervention, non-randomized, small N) or actually involve doing something other than acupuncture, such as running an electrical current through the needles.