Item 3a: Number of treatment sessions 

Explanation:   
The planned number of sessions and frequency of treatment should be clearly documented. The actual number of treatments received by participants should be reported in the Results section. If there is variation between patients, then the mean and range should be reported.

Examples:
i) The true acupuncture (experimental) group underwent 26 weeks of gradually tapering treatment according to the following schedule: 8 weeks of 2 treatments per week followed by 2 weeks of 1 treatment per week, 4 weeks of 1 treatment every other week, and 12 weeks of 1 treatment per month. (1)  

Item 3b: Frequency and duration of treatment sessions 

Explanation: 
The frequency and duration of sessions should be documented, with mean and range to be reported where there is variation across patients. Any variation in frequency of treatment (for example if subjects are to be treated twice weekly in the first two weeks then once a week for the next six weeks) should be clearly reported.  

Examples:
i) Acupuncture was administered a maximum of eight times, twice during each of the first three weeks and once during each of the following two weeks, for 30 minutes at each session. One month after this series of treatments had been completed and evaluated, the patients were offered a maximum of two follow up treatments of the same kind, one week apart. (3)

References:

   (1) Berman BM, Lao L, Langenberg P, Lee WL, Gilpin AM, Hochberg MC. Effectiveness of acupuncture as adjunctive therapy in osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med 2004;141(12):901-10.

   (2) Assefi NP, Sherman KJ, Jacobsen C, Goldberg J, Smith WR, Buchwald D. A randomized clinical trial of acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture in fibromyalgia. Ann Intern Med 2005 Jul 5;143(1):10-9.