Abstract
Background. Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is recognized as a widespread health problem in young children and adolescents. Clinical researches about acupuncture therapy for nocturnal enuresis are increasing, while systematic reviews assessing the efficacy of acupuncture therapy are still lacking. Objective. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy for nocturnal enuresis. Materials and Methods. A comprehensive literature search of 8 databases was performed up to June 2014; randomized controlled trials which compared acupuncture therapy and placebo treatment or pharmacological therapy were identified. A meta-analysis was conducted. Results. This review included 21 RCTs and a total of 1590 subjects. The overall methodological qualities were low. The results of meta-analysis showed that acupuncture therapy was more effective for clinical efficacy when compared with placebo or pharmacological treatment. Adverse events associated with acupuncture therapy were not documented. Conclusion. Based on the findings of this study, we cautiously suggest that acupuncture therapy could improve the clinical efficacy. However, the beneficial effect of acupuncture might be overstated due to low methodological qualities. Rigorous high quality RCTs are urgently needed.
Highlights
Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is a worldwide health problem frequently encountered in childhood and is defined as an involuntary voiding of urine during sleep with a frequency of at least twice a week in children, in the absence of congenital or acquired defects of the central nervous system [1]
It includes monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (MNE) with no daytime urinary symptoms and nonmonosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (NMNE) that is accompanied by daytime urinary symptoms
Because only two of these studies [10, 17] compared acupuncture with placebo treatment, we just used them for systematic review (Figure 1)
Summary
Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is a worldwide health problem frequently encountered in childhood and is defined as an involuntary voiding of urine during sleep with a frequency of at least twice a week in children, in the absence of congenital or acquired defects of the central nervous system [1]. It includes monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (MNE) with no daytime urinary symptoms and nonmonosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (NMNE) that is accompanied by daytime urinary symptoms. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy for nocturnal enuresis. The results of meta-analysis showed that acupuncture therapy was more effective for clinical efficacy when compared with placebo or pharmacological treatment.
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