Review of Studies on Clinical Trials of Acupuncture Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease Using Neuroimaging Methods

Abstract

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the current state of clinical trials for acupuncture treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using neuroimaging methods. Methods We searched for clinical trial studies of acupuncture treatment for Parkinson’s disease that used neuroimaging methods in the MEDLINE (PubMed) database. The identified studies were then selected manually based on inclusion criteria. We subsequently analyzed the characteristics of the selected articles and reviewed the neural substrates of acupuncture treatment in PD. Results Eight studies were included. The most frequently applied modality for PD was functional MRI. The most frequently selected acupoint for PD was GV34. Several studies showed that acupuncture treatment could improve the symptoms of PD. Through the analysis, we demonstrated that the neuroimaging method could capture the neural substrates associated with PD and that acupuncture treatment may affect the activation of brain areas that are impaired in PD in a different way than sham acupuncture. Conclusions Applying a neuroimaging method could be helpful in clinical trials of acupuncture treatment for PD, and more efforts should be made in this area. Keywords: neuroimaging, Parkinson’s disease, acupuncture