Evaluation Of Acupuncture Research Articles

Health technology assessment in traditional and complementary medicine: a scoping review of international activity and examples of acupuncture.

Traditional therapies are crucial in maintaining and improving human well-being. China's healthcare policymakers are attempting to use health technology assessment (HTA) as a decision-making supportive tool. The value assessment framework for Chinese patent medicine (CPM) has been developed and is being adopted and validated widely by research institutions. Subsequently, the healthcare decision-makers particularly hanker for the value framework of traditional non-pharmacological therapies. To construct a practical value framework for traditional non-pharmacological therapies, a scoping review methodology was adopted to identify the evaluation domains and obstacles. A search, screening, and analysis process was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Evidence was retrieved from scientific databases and HTA agencies' websites. The search strategy identified 5 guidelines records and 17 acupuncture HTA reports. By synthesizing the valuable reports of CPM and acupuncture evaluation in representative countries, this study found that Mainland China was promoting the comprehensive value assessment of CPM, whereas the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, the United States, and Malaysia had carried out the HTA evaluation of acupuncture for various conditions among which chronic pain was the most common. UK and Singapore applied the HTA results to support acupuncture reimbursement decisions. Three domains, including safety, effectiveness, and economy, were commonly adopted. The identified biggest challenge of evaluating traditional non-pharmacological therapies is the scarce high-quality clinical evidence. This study identified value domains and issues of traditional therapies, and pointed out future research implications, to promote the development value framework of traditional therapies.

Evaluation of acupuncture and auriculotherapy in the control of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: a Pilot Study

RESUMO Objetivo: Avaliar a efetividade do protocolo de acupuntura e auriculoterapia no alívio de náuseas e vômitos induzidos por quimioterapia em pacientes oncológicos em comparação ao protocolo antiemético. Método: Estudo piloto tipo ensaio clínico pragmático de dois braços: grupo acupuntura recebeu acupuntura sistêmica, auriculoterapia e protocolo antiemético, o grupo controle utilizou protocolo antiemético. A amostra foi composta por 42 pacientes com câncer do sistema gastrointestinal ou mieloma múltiplo. O desfecho foi avaliado pelo Instrumento de Avaliação de náuseas e vômitos induzidos por quimioterapia e diário do paciente. Resultados: Não houve diferença estatística significativa entre os grupos pela avaliação do diário do paciente e Instrumento de Avaliação de náuseas e vômitos induzidos por quimioterapia. Os pacientes apresentavam em média 60 anos e os grupos foram homogêneos, exceto para o estado civil. No diário, não houve diferença estatística entre os grupos e as sessões para os dias de náuseas (p = 0,873) e episódios de vômitos (p = 0,993). Conclusão: O protocolo de acupuntura e auriculoterapia como tratamento complementar de náuseas e vômitos induzidos por quimioterapia foi inefetivo, considerando as limitações do estudo.

Evaluation of Acupuncture Combined with Rehabilitation Therapy on Neurological Function Recovery in Patients with Cerebral Infarction

Evaluation of Acupuncture Combined with Rehabilitation Therapy on Neurological Function Recovery in Patients with Cerebral Infarction

Application and thinking of cohort study in clinical research of acupuncture and moxibustion

Cohort study has been greatly considered and widely used in clinical research of traditional Chinese medicine in China, but it is seldom applied in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion. This paper introduces the development background, basic concepts, advantages and limitations of cohort study, analyzes the existing problems in the evaluation of acupuncture and moxibustion curative effect and development status of cohort study in the cycle of acupuncture and moxibustion, explores the feasibility and value of such method in clinical research of acupuncture and moxibustion and proposes the methodological suggestions on rigorous design, control of selective bias, control of cohort migration and reduction of loss to follow-up, aiming at broadening the new ideas andmethods for clinical research of acupuncture and moxibustion.

Clinical Evaluation of Acupuncture in Treating Glaucoma

Clinical Evaluation of Acupuncture in Treating Glaucoma

Evaluation of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The aim of this study was to examine the additive effect of medical acupuncture on controlling the symptoms of restless legs syndrome (RLS). A total of 46 randomly allocated patients diagnosed with RLS were assigned to receive either 10 sessions of acupuncture plus gabapentin (300 mg/d), or gabapentin (300 mg/d) alone (23 patients in each group) over 4 weeks in a single-blind study. The symptoms of patients were assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the International Restless Legs Syndrome Rating Scale (IRLSRS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline, just after the therapeutic course and 8 weeks later. For all outcome measures, there was a significant time-group interaction, showing that the behavior of groups differed regarding changes in VAS, IRLSRS, and PSQI in favor of the experimental group. After therapeutic course termination and in 8 weeks follow up, VAS and IRLSRS had a significant improvement in both the experimental group and the control group, but PSQI improved significantly just in the experimental group. Based on the findings of the present study, acupuncture plus a low dose of gabapentin (300 mg/d) is clinically useful in the treatment of RLS during 8 weeks follow up, and also has an additive therapeutic effect over gabapentin alone in patients with RLS.

The U.K. NICE 2014 Guidelines for Osteoarthritis of the Knee: Lessons Learned in a Narrative Review Addressing Inadvertent Limitations and Bias.

Several systematic reviews suggest that acupuncture is effective for knee osteoarthritis (OA), and furthermore a safe and cost-effective treatment for this condition. A recent clinical practice guideline (CPG) from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in the United Kingdom, recommended against the use of acupuncture on the grounds that the effect size (ES) in comparison with sham acupuncture is too small. Safety data were not considered in the review, in addition the levels of evidence for acupuncture against other recommended therapies were not compared. Consequently, it is argued that this NICE guideline has limitations that lead to several potential biases in its evaluation of acupuncture, which were not addressed correctly: (1) NICE's prior scoping process limited its review. (2) NICE introduced the method of developing recommendations based on the consideration of which interventions make "minimal important differences" of an ES of 0.5 or greater, rather than the statistical significance of the effect of an intervention when compared with an appropriate comparison. (3) Evidence that sham acupuncture is not physiologically inert and has some level of beneficial effect, hence artificially reducing the magnitude of the ES in comparison with sham. (4) The low adverse effects profile of acupuncture. (5) Evidence from trials comparing acupuncture with usual or standard care was not considered, nor was cost-effectiveness data. (6) Lack of the usual CPG "head-to-head" comparisons between interventions. If the same criteria and methods that have been applied to acupuncture were applied to other NICE-recommended therapies for knee OA, including patient centeredness, patient education, self-management and weight loss, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs), and cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor (COX-2 inhibitors), these too would no longer be recommended and opiates would become the first line of drug prescription. Given the problems with sham acupuncture, perhaps now is the time to embrace pragmatic studies and employ comparative effectiveness studies instead.

Current situation and analysis of clinical application of auricular acupoint sticking therapy

Objective By the bibliometrical analysis and evaluation of acupuncture theses on auricular acupoint sticking from 2005 to 2014, the analysis was processed from multiple aspects including the types and numbers of diseases and effective rates of various diseases, in order to objectively reflect the general situation of clinical application of ear point embedding method in the recent years.

Current Status on Education and Evaluation of Acupuncture and TCM in Canada

Current Status on Education and Evaluation of Acupuncture and TCM in Canada

A New Theory on the Evaluation of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture Mechanisms from the Latest Medical Scientific Point of View.

Acupuncture is a key component of traditional Chinese medicine involving the insertion of needles through the skin at specific points on the body to achieve therapeutic effects and is an ancient Chinese art of healing. Using ancient scientific principles, acupuncture treats illnesses by bringing a person's body into harmony and regulating the balance of Yin and Yang. Balancing Yin and Yang is one basic principle of Chinese medicine, and balancing methods for combination of meridians and acupoints have been described throughout the history of Chinese medicine. Clinical observations and principal research on acupuncture focus on the adjustment of the Zang-Fu organ and have shown that the adjustment by acupuncture relied largely on the effective components in different organs. What does this effectiveness mean? In fact, is acupuncture a treatment that shows its effects with signals to the autocrine, paracrine and endocrine pathways? What role does embryology play in this area? Furthermore, molecular biology has opened avenues to newer methods for the study of embryology and to enhance our understanding of growth and development. Can evaluation of acupuncture with these branches of science be more scientific? We discuss this interesting topic in this original article. After all this time, it is reasonable that different therapeutic techniques and approaches are developed for acupuncture.

Goal Attainment Scale and Clinical Efficacy Evaluation of Acupuncture

Goal Attainment Scale and Clinical Efficacy Evaluation of Acupuncture

GW25-e0755 Targeted Metabolomic Evaluation of Acupuncture for Chronic Stable Angina Pectoris

GW25-e0755 Targeted Metabolomic Evaluation of Acupuncture for Chronic Stable Angina Pectoris

Acupuncture and Moxibustion for Cancer-related Fatigue: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Faced with highly prevalent and recalcitrant cancer-related fatigue (CRF), together with the absence of any official guidelines on management, numerous groups have been striving to seek and test alternative therapies including acupuncture and moxibustion. However, different patients have various feedbacks, and the many clinical trials have given rise to varied conclusions. In terms of the therapeutic effect of acupuncture and moxibustion, there exist vast inconsistencies. The aim of the study was to evaluate the auxiliary effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of CRF, and to provide more reliable evidence to guide clinical practice. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before December 2012 were all aggregated, focusing on evaluation of acupuncture or moxibustion for CRF. The quality of the included studies was assessed basing on Cochrane handbook 5.1.0, and the available data were analyzed with RevMan software (version 5.2.0). Descriptive techniques were performed when no available data could be used. A total of 7 studies involving 804 participants were eligible. With real acupuncture versus sham acupuncture, subjects receiving true acupuncture benefited more in the reduction of fatigue. With real acupuncture versus acupressure or sham acupressure, fatigue level appeared 36% improved in the acupuncture group, but 19% in the acupressure group and only 0.6% with sham acupressure. When real acupuncture plus enhanced routine care was compared with enhanced routine care, the combination group improved mean scores for general fatigue, together with physical and mental fatigue. With real acupuncture versus sham acupuncture or wait list controls, the real acupuncture group displayed significant advantages over the wait list controls at 2 weeks for fatigue improvement and better well-being effects at 6 weeks. When moxibustion plus routine care was compared with routine care alone, the meta-analyses demonstrated the combination had a relatively significant benefit in improving severe fatigue and QLQ-C30. Up to the search date, there exist few high quality RCTs to evaluate the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion, especially moxibustion in English. Yet acupuncture and moxibustion still appeared to be efficacious auxiliary therapeutic methods for CRF, in spite of several inherent defects of the included studies. Much more high-quality studies are urgently needed.

Acupuncture for the Management of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

J Adv Pract Oncol 2012;3:178–181 Review of “Evaluation of acupuncture in the management of chemotherapyinduced peripheral neuropathy,” by G. K. Donald, I. Tobin, and J. Stringer (2011). Acupuncture in Medicine, 29, 230–233. For a discussion of the potential threats to validity that exist in studies using a retrospective design, see the related article by Cindy Tofthagen, PhD, ARNP, AOCNP®, on page 181.

Evaluation of Acupuncture in the Management of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy

To clinically evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture when used in the management of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (PN). During cancer treatment, certain chemotherapies can cause varying degrees of PN. Patients' quality of life can be seriously impaired through loss of sensation, pain or mobility problems. Conventional medications routinely used to manage neuropathic symptoms have poor side-effect profiles and there is little or no evidence justifying their use to treat chemotherapy-related neurotoxicities. There are studies suggesting that acupuncture may be an effective therapy in treating PN across a number of different aetiologies. Design A retrospective service evaluation. Patients (n=18) were referred for acupuncture by the medical staff and/ornurse specialists or they self-referred for treatment. A course of six weekly acupuncture sessions was offered to them, and their details were recorded on an evaluation form prior to session one. Points were selected by acupuncturists, based on patient presentation, and needles remained in situ for 30-45 min. Treatments took place in outpatient clinics, chemotherapy day case ward or a drop-in clinic based in a physiotherapy gym. The evaluation form was completed at the end of session 6 by a therapist who had not been involved in patient care. 82% (n=14) of patients reported an improvement in symptoms following their course of acupuncture; one patient with advanced disease died during the 6 weeks. Some patients derived additional benefits from the treatment including a reduction in analgesic use and improved sleeping patterns. The most common acupoints used were SP6 (n=18), ST36 (n=18) and LV3 (n=14). Although these results are encouraging, they are uncontrolled. They suggest that acupuncture could be an option for these patients and controlled trials using validated patient-reported outcome measures are justified.

Developing a research strategy for acupuncture

This strategic overview revisits some of the basic assumptions that relate to the clinical evaluation of acupuncture. We look at the evidence available to estimate both the specific and nonspecific effect size of acupuncture (efficacy and effectiveness) and consider the placebo within acupuncture trials, as well as the value of both placebo controlled trials and pragmatic acupuncture studies. We argue for an augmented, mixed methodology that integrates basic mechanism studies, including modern imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance, quantitative and qualitative research, as well as safety and health economic data to obtain a more rigorous understanding of acupuncture. We hope that by taking a broad, patient-centered, and rigorous approach we may arrive at a realistic and thoughtful evaluation of its relative value in comparison to placebo treatment, conventional medicine, and its potential for integration into conventional clinical care.

Avaliação do efeito da acupuntura Koryo Sooji Chim no tratamento da dor em pacientes com osteoartrose

Este estudo tem como objetivo verificar o efeito, pré e pós, da aplicação da técnica de acupuntura Koryo Sooji Chim no tratamento da dor em pacientes portadores de osteoartrose. Foram sujeitos da pesquisa oito voluntárias entre 45 e 75 anos de idade, portadoras de osteoartrose cervical, torácica, lombar, na mão, quadril e joelho, do setor de ortopedia da Clínica de Fisioterapia da Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes. Foram utilizados um folheto explicativo sobre a técnica de acupuntura Koryo Sooji Chim, consentimento formal de participação no trabalho de pesquisa, questionários de avaliação para acupuntura, de dor EVA e de qualidade de vida SF-36. Os resultados obtidos com relação à avaliação da dor, pré e pós-tratamento e a cada sessão, foram estatisticamente significantes, onde p ≤ 0,05, observando-se, assim, melhora no quadro doloroso da doença. Concluiu-se que a acupuntura, como método auxiliar no tratamento da osteoartrose, associada aos recursos fisioterapêuticos, é eficiente na minimização da dor.

Clinical and Economic Evaluation of Acupuncture for Back Pain (N=11 630 Cohort; 3093 Randomised)

Clinical and Economic Evaluation of Acupuncture for Back Pain (N=11 630 Cohort; 3093 Randomised)

Evaluation of acupuncture in the treatment of Parkinson's disease: A double‐blind pilot study

As many as 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) use some form of complementary medicine during the course of their illness, and many try acupuncture. One nonblinded study of the effects of acupuncture in PD suggested that it might be helpful for some aspects of PD. We performed a double-blind, randomized, pilot study comparing acupuncture to a control nonacupuncture procedure to determine the effects of acupuncture upon a variety of PD-associated symptoms. Fourteen patients with Stage II or III PD received acupuncture or a control nonacupuncture protocol. Before and after treatment, patients were evaluated using the Motor subscale of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), and the Geriatric Depression Scale. There were no statistically significant changes for the outcomes measured. In the patients who received acupuncture, nonsignificant trends toward improvement were noted in the Activities of Daily Living score of the PDQ-39, the PDQ-39 Summary Index(c) 2005 Movement Disorder Society.

The Integration of Acupuncture within Medicine in the UK – the British Medical Acupuncture Society—s 25Th Anniversary

Acupuncture was first used in China, probable about 2000 years ago. When acupuncture first arrived in the West in the 17th century, the principles which the Chinese had used to explain its actions were at variance with current scientific knowledge of the body's structure and function. This led to the rejection of acupuncture by the medical profession in the UK, although individual practitioners adopted it with enthusiasm, usually needling the point of maximal tenderness to treat musculoskeletal pain. Acupuncture was more generally accepted in France and Germany, where the pioneering British physician Felix Mann encountered it in the 1950s. He then taught acupuncture to other medical practitioners and organised regular meetings in London, from which the British Medical Acupuncture Society, BMAS, emerged in 1980. The tradition of biannual scientific meetings has continued since then. The Society has many connections with prominent acupuncturists internationally and is a founder member of the International Council of Medical Acupuncture and Related Techniques (ICMART), and has hosted two world congresses. The Society was involved in standardisation of the meridian nomenclature published in 1990. The Society's scientific journal, Acupuncture in Medicine, was founded in 1981 and has gained international recognition, being indexed on several databases. The Society has established regular teaching courses at different levels, which lead to professional qualifications of Certificate and Diploma. The membership is now open to different health professionals, has grown steadily and now stands at nearly 2500. The Society is administered from offices in Cheshire and London. Many individual members have contributed to the Society's characteristic Western 'medical' approach to acupuncture in which needling is seen as a form of neuromuscular stimulation that owes little to traditional meridians or points. The Society has shown a particular interest in acupuncture for myofascial trigger point pain. Members of the Society have contributed to the evidence base of acupuncture with several books, clinical trials and reviews. The Society is optimistic that it will have an increasingly important role in promoting the use and scientific evaluation of acupuncture for the public benefit.