Safety Of Acupuncture Research Articles

Auricular acupuncture for shoulder pain: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Shoulder pain is a common problem in outpatient medical practice. Recent studies show that acupuncture has therapeutic effect on releasing symptoms of shoulder pain. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to access the efficacy and safety of auricular acupuncture for shoulder pain.Methods:Eight databases will be searched for randomized controlled trials of auricular acupuncture in the treatment of shoulder pain with retrieval time up to September 2020, including PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Web of science, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and Wangfang Data databases. We will evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies by using Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and conduct data analysis with Review Manager Software.Results:The results of this study will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed journal publication.Conclusion:The systematic review will provide up-to-date evidence for the efficacy and safety of auricular acupuncture in treating shoulder pain.PROSPERO registration number:CRD 42021238797

Clinical studies on acupuncture assisting in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer: a review and thoughts

Acupuncture has a long history of application in the field of reproduction, and in the past 20 years, numerous clinical studies have been conducted to explore the value of acupuncture in assisted reproductive technology. However, due to inconsistent research findings, there are still controversies over the clinical safety and efficacy of acupuncture in assisting in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET), which may be closely associated with lacking of standardized treatment regimen in clinical trials of acupuncture. For that reason, this article reviews 16 representative clinical trials of acupuncture assisting IVF-ET published worldwide in 1999-2020, summarizes the grouping design, acupuncture method (acupuncture timing, acupuncture frequency, acupoints, and acupuncture types), and pregnancy outcome (pregnancy rate, clinical pregnancy rate, ongoing pregnancy rate, and live birth rate), and discusses several key links in clinical protocol design, so as to provide references for future clinical research.

Acupuncture treatment for post-stroke insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

ObjectivesThe meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of post-stroke insomnia. MethodsRandomized controlled trials were identified from five databases before April 2020. The primary outcomes were the rate of improvement and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores; the secondary outcomes included the follow-up PSQI scores and safety. ResultsForty-one trials were included. Compared to drugs, the pooled results revealed that acupuncture had a higher rate of improvement in sleep (risk ratio: 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17, 1.24) and a better PSQI score immediately and three months after treatment (weighted mean differences [WMD]: 3.23, 95%CI: 3.92, −2.54; and −6.18, 95%CI: 8.28, −4.07, respectively). Side effects were minor and rarely reported on acupuncture. ConclusionThe existing evidence suggests acupuncture may be more effective in treating post-stroke insomnia than drugs. It also appears to have a good safety profile and more long-term benefits.

An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Acupuncture for Infertile Women Undergoing in vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer.

Background: Currently, more and more subfertility couples are opting for combined acupuncture to improve the success rate of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). However, the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in IVF-ET is still highly controversial.Objectives: The purpose of this overview is to summarize evidence of essential outcomes of systematic reviews (SRs) of acupuncture in IVF-ET and evaluate their methodological quality.Methods: We conducted a comprehensive literature search for relevant SRs in eight databases from inception to July 31, 2020, without language restriction. We evaluated the methodological quality of the included SRs by using A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2), which was the latest available assessment tool. The Risk of Bias in Systematic Review (ROBIS) tool was used to assess the risk of bias in SRs. We assessed the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) score to determine the strength of evidence. We excluded the overlapping randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and performed a re-meta-analysis of the primary RCTs.Results: This review included 312 original RCT studies and 65,388 participants. By using AMSTAR-2, we found that the methodological quality of 16 SRs was critically low, because they had more than one critical weakness. Our reviews showed that although the GRADE for quality of evidence profile was suboptimal, acupuncture seemed to be beneficial in increasing the pregnancy rate. Our re-meta-analysis suggested that acupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture in improving the clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) of IVF-ET with substantial heterogeneity (RR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.13–1.52, p = 0.0004, I2 = 66%). No statistical difference was observed regarding the outcomes of live birth rate (LBR), ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR), biochemical pregnancy rate (BPR), and miscarriage rate (MR) between two groups. When compared with no adjunctive treatment groups, acupuncture improved CPR (RR = 1. 25, 95% CI: 1.11–1.42, p = 0.0003) and OPR (RR = 1. 38, 95% CI: 1.04–1.83, p = 0.03). Acupuncture was more superior than no adjunctive treatment in reducing MR (OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.03–1.95, p = 0.03) and BPR (RR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.02–1.37, p = 0.02).Conclusions: Although the evidence of acupuncture in IVF-ET is insufficient, acupuncture appears to be beneficial to increase the clinical pregnancy rate in women undergoing IVF-ET. However, there are severe heterogeneity and methodological quality defects, which limit the reliability of results. Further, high-quality primary studies are still needed.

Effect of acupuncture on essential hypertension: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Essential hypertension is a risk factor for early cardiovascular disease and is a major preventable risk factor for premature death and disability worldwide. However, some antihypertensive drugs cannot be used for treatment because of their cost-effectiveness or side effects. Non-drug treatments for hypertension include weight loss, salt restriction, smoking cessation, alcohol withdrawal, and exercise, although these methods are difficult to maintain and to achieve. This study will investigate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of different grades of essential hypertension.Methods and analysis:A systematic search of the Cochrane, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and CBM databases will be performed, which will include randomized controlled trials on acupuncture for essential hypertension. The main results will include systolic and diastolic blood pressure before and after treatment, whereas the secondary outcomes will be efficacy rate and adverse events. The possible adverse reactions include dizziness, headache, edema, cough, nausea, electrolyte disorders, and hypotension. RevMan Manager 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration) and STATA 16.0 software will be used to calculate mean deviation, standard deviation, confidence interval, and P values. For continuous variables, we will use the standardized mean difference of 95% confidence intervals as the summary statistics of the meta-analysis.Results:This study will assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for essential hypertension.Conclusions:Our study will determine the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating primary hypertension, and provide the basis for clinical decision-making.INPLASY registration number:INPLASY202130042.

Efficacy and safety of abdominal acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a disease based on degenerative pathological changes. Most commonly seen in the elderly and is one of Kenn's leading causes, its symptoms include swollen knees, pain in walking up and downstairs. If left untreated, it can lead to joint deformity and disability. Many clinical studies have reported that abdominal acupuncture has a good effect on KOA treatment, but there is no relevant systematic review. So the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of abdominal acupuncture in treating KOA.Methods:The following 8 electronic databases will be searched, including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), Wanfang Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literatures Database (CBM) from their inception to November 1, 2020 without any restrictions. Researchers retrieve the literature and extracted the data, evaluation of research methods, quality of literature. The outcomes will include a Visual Analogue Scale. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, total effective rate, incidence of any adverse events. We use the Cochrane Risk of a bias assessment tool to evaluate methodological qualities. Data synthesis will be completed by RevMan 5.3.0.Results:We will show the results of this study in a peer-reviewed journal.Conclusions:This meta-analysis will provide reliable evidence for abdominal acupuncture treatment of KOA.INPLASY registration number:INPLASY2020110020.

Comparison of the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and acupotomy for patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:There is no systematic review to compare the efficacy of acupuncture and acupotomy in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. It is worthy to critically review the evidence of the comparison of these 2 therapies to inform clinical practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and acupotomy in the treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy and to provide evidence for clinical practice.Methods:Seven electronic databases including Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, Wanfang Data, Scopus, Science Direct, Cochrane Library were searched in March 2021 by 2 independent reviewers. Data extraction was performed independently, and any conflict was resolved before final analysis. Only randomized clinical trials were included in this study. Outcomes included pain intensity, symptom score, neck disability index, total effective rate, and curative rate. The Cochrane risk of bias tool is used to evaluate the risk of bias of included randomized controlled trials by 2 independent reviewers.Results:We hypothesized that these 2 methods would provide similar therapeutic benefits. The results of this research will be delivered in a peer-reviewed journal.Conclusion:This study expects to provide credible and scientific clinical evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and acupotomy in the treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.OSF registration number:10.17605/OSF.IO/U7T6A.

Acupuncture Treatment for Cough-Variant Asthma: A Meta-Analysis

Background In recent years, there have been many clinical reports on acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma, but no researcher has objectively analysed and evaluated the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma from the perspective of evidence-based medicine. Objective To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating cough-variant asthma and to provide reference values for clinical decision-making. Methods The comprehensive computer retrieval Chinese journal full-text database (CNKI), Chinese science and technology periodical database (VIP), ten thousand data knowledge service platform (WanFang Data), PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were used to collect literature for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCT) of acupuncture treatment of cough-variant asthma, as well as to retrieve papers and add reference retrieval after literature review, in accordance with the standard of literature filtering, data extraction, and quality evaluation. The data were meta-analysed using ReviewManager5.3 software recommended by Cochrane. Results A total of 11 randomized controlled clinical studies were screened and included, comprising 929 patients. The results of the meta-analysis showed that, compared with the control group, acupuncture intervention on CVA could enhance the total clinical effectiveness rate, reduce the relapse rate of drug withdrawal, relieve symptoms of cough, phlegm, and diaphragmatic congestion, and improve lung function-related indicators and immune inflammation indicators. There were statistically significant differences in all efficacy evaluation criteria. Conclusion The clinical curative effect of acupuncture treatment for cough-variant asthma is precise and has certain advantages in relieving symptoms and reducing the recurrence rate. However, the low quality of the evaluation in the RCT research literature is a problem, and more high-quality clinical randomized controlled trials are needed to further verify the comprehensive clinical efficacy and safety of this treatment. Registration number: PROSPERO (no. CRD42020155244) (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/).

Single Acupuncture Treatment Can Reduce the Level of Uric Acid and Alleviating Pain in Gouty Arthritis, a Meta-Analysis

Objective: The effectiveness and safety of single acupuncture on gouty arthritis were systematically evaluated by comparing the effectiveness of Western medicine and single acupuncture on gouty arthritis. Methods: Two reviewers collected and screened the literature, and extracted relevant information, including: course of disease, random method, intervention measures, course of treatment, detection indicators, adverse reactions, etc. Objective: The effectiveness and safety of single acupuncture on gouty arthritis were systematically evaluated by comparing the effectiveness of Western medicine and single acupuncture on gouty arthritis. Methods: Two reviewers collected and screened the literature, and extracted relevant information, including: course of disease, random method, intervention measures, course of treatment, detection indicators, adverse reactions, etc. Quality assessment, meta-analysis, publication bias and sensitivity analysis were performed. The main outcomes included total effective rate and serum uric acid, while secondary outcomes included pain integral, adverse events and follow-up shedding etc. Results: 26 RCTs were screened out, with a total of 2048 participants. The results show that the total effective rate of single acupuncture treatment of gouty arthritis is higher than that of the Western medicine group [OR = 4.33, 95% CI (3.22, 5.82)], and it had a certain clinical advantage in reducing the level of uric acid [MD = –68.39, 95% CI(–97. 47, –39.31)], the analgesic effect is equivalent to that of Western medicine. There were no adverse reactions were reported in the single acupuncture treatment group. Conclusion: The results show that single acupuncture is more effective and safer than Western medicine in the treatment of gouty arthritis. However, due to the low quality of the included literature, these results should be interpreted with caution; more scientific clinical RCTs are needed to verify the effect of single acupuncture on gouty arthritis.

Efficacy and safety of fire acupuncture for psoriasis vulgaris: A protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

Introduction:Fire acupuncture is commonly used for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris, but the efficacy and safety of fire acupuncture for psoriasis vulgaris remain unclear.Methods:This systematic review and meta-analysis will be conducted and reported strictly according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Five databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, VIP, Chinese biomedical literature, and Pubmed will be retrieved for potentially eligible studies from their inception to Jan. 2021. All randomized clinical trials comparing fire acupuncture versus no fire acupuncture in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris will be retrieved and assessed for inclusion. RevMan5.3 software provided by Cochrane collaboration will be used for the analysis. Randomized Clinical Trials Data will be extracted by 2 researchers independently, risk of bias of the meta-analysis will be evaluated based on the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. The primary endpoint is the total effective rate, the secondary outcomes are the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score, the recurrence rate and the adverse reactions.Results:This study will systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of fire acupuncture for psoriasis vulgaris. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.Conclusion:This systematic review will evaluate the effects of fire acupuncture in patients with psoriasis vulgaris, thus providing evidence to the clinical application of this therapy.

Acupuncture for Internet addiction: A protocol for systematic review.

Background:Internet addiction (IA) has become a global problem characterized by excessive use of the internet, compulsive, and deleterious personal behaviors. Acupuncture has gained more and more attention in the treatment of IA. However, evidence of its effectiveness is lacking. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of IA.Methods:The following databases will be searched from the inception to September 30, 2020: the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan-fang database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Chinese Scientific Journal Database. The research on acupuncture and IA meets the screening criteria, and two independent reviewers performed citation screening, data extraction, and risk assessment of bias. We used Cochrane Review Manager 5.3 software for statistical analysis.Results:The findings will be published at scientific conferences or in a peer-reviewed journal. This study is based on the existing research, so there is no need for ethical approval.Conclusion:This systematic review provides evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in treating IA disorder, and it is of great significance for effective clinical routine treatment of IA.Trial registration number:INPLASY 2020120099

Acupuncture for treating tic disorders in children: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Tic disorders (TDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders in children, while pharmacotherapy is often associated with various side effects and has limited clinical effects for some patients, thus significantly affecting patients’ quality of life. Studies have found acupuncture shows certain advantages in the treatment of TDs. However, there is no high level of evidence evaluating the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for children with TDs.Methods:Each data of acupuncture for treating TDs will be searched. We will search for related English and Chinese databases. The time is limited from inception until November 2020. The primary outcome is the reduction rate (amount) of tic severity using related scales or methods, and the secondary outcomes include recurrence rate and adverse events. The risk of bias will be assessed, and the RevMan5.3 and Stata14.0 will be performed for meta-analysis. Finally, we will assess the level of the resulting evidence.Results:The results of the study will synthesize the current evidence and be published in peer-reviewed journals.Conclusions:This research aims to provide convincing evidence of the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for treating TDs in children.INPLASY registration number:INPLASY2020110050.

Effect and safety of acupuncture for autism spectrum disorders: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition, which is characterized by impairment in social interaction or communication and lack of flexibility of imagination and behavior. Acupuncture is one of the most common modality of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and has been used to treat various disease in clinical practice for more than 2000 years in China by correcting disharmony and dysregulation of body. It has sometimes been used as a treatment aimed at improving ASD symptoms and outcomes, but its clinical effectiveness and safety has not been rigorously reviewed. We will plan to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the current evidence on the effects and safety of acupuncture for ASD.Methods:The following databases will be searched: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, Wanfang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed, and VIP. Randomised controlled trials will be included to evaluate the effect and safety of acupuncture on patients with ASD. The primary outcome will be the core features of ASD. The risk of bias will be assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. We will conduct a meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis, as well as a subgroup analysis if high heterogeneity is present, using Revman 5.3. We will use funnel plots to identify potential reporting biases. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation will be used to evaluate the quality of evidence.Results:This study will be to assess the effect and safety of acupuncture for ASD.Conclusions:This study will assess the effect of acupuncture for ASD and provide reliable evidence for the choice of treatments.Ethics and dissemination:The protocol will not need ethical approval because no issues of participant privacy exist. The results of this systematic review will provide evidence about the effect and safety of acupuncture for ASD. The results will be disseminated through peer review.

Acupuncture for HIV-associated distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy (DSPN) is one of the most frequent neurological complications of HIV infection, and causes pain and dysaesthesias in millions globally. Many individuals with this infection report using acupuncture to manage their symptoms, but evidence supporting the use of acupuncture is limited. This systematic review will assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with HIV-associated DSPN.Methods:Databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, Web of science, AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine), the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, VIP Database and clinical trials registers (the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform portal and www.ClinicalTrials.gov) will be electronically searched from inception to December 1, 2020. All randomized controlled trials in English or Chinese without restriction on publication status will be included. Selection of studies, extraction of data, and assessment of studies quality will be independently performed by 2 reviewers. The primary outcome measure will be the change in pain intensity assessed by validated scales. Secondary outcomes include change in neurologic summary scores, quality of life, physical function evaluated by admitted tools, and adverse events related to acupuncture reported in the included trials. If possible, a meta-analysis will be conducted to provide an estimate of the pooled treatment effect using Review Manager 5.3 statistical software. Otherwise, qualitative descriptive analysis will be given. The results will be presented as the risk ratio for binary data and the mean difference (MD) or standardized MD for continuous data.Results:The results of the systematic review will be disseminated via publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at a relevant conference.Conclusion:This review will be the first review entirely focused on assessing the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for HIV-associated DSPN.PROSPERO registration number:CRD42020210994.

Simple acupuncture combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of poststroke depression: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Poststroke depression is a common secondary mental disorder after stroke, which increases the recurrence rate and mortality rate after stroke and hinders the recovery of function. As a combination therapy, simple acupuncture combined with fluoxetine has achieved good clinical effect, but there is a lack of evidence-based medicine. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of poststroke depression by meta-analysis.Methods:Search Chinese and English databases: China national knowledge infrastructure, VP information Chinese Journal Service Platform, Wanfang, the China Biomedical Database, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and web of science. A randomized controlled trial of simple acupuncture combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of poststroke depression will be selected. The retrieval time is of the establishment of the database in January 2021. Selected literature is extracted and deleted by 2 researchers, and the quality of the included literature is evaluated. The included literature is analyzed by Meta with RevMan5.3 software.Results:In this study, the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of post-stroke depression are evaluated by Hamilton Depression scale (HAMD) and its reduction rate, Treatment Emergency Symptom Scale, Self-rating Depression Scale, and Activities of Daily living scale.Conclusion:This study will provide reliable evidence-based evidence for the clinical application of acupuncture combined with fluoxetine in the treatment of post-stroke depression.OSF Registration number:DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/5J896.

Acupuncture for chronic constipation in patients with diabetes mellitus: A protocol for systematic review.

Background:Assessing the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for chronic constipation in patients with diabetes mellitus is the main purpose of this systematic review protocol.Methods:The following electronic databases will be searched from their respective inception dates to December 1st 2020: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, World Science Net, the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, the Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database and the Wanfang Database. All published randomized controlled trials in English or Chinese related to acupuncture for constipation in patient with diabetes mellitus will be included. The Bristol stool scale, spontaneous complete bowel movements, and observing symptoms (yes/no) including defecation feeling, defecation weakness, feeling of incomplete evacuation, bloating, and flatulence were considered as primary measures. The treatment efficiency consideration according to Bristol stool scale was considered as secondary measure. Two reviewers will conduct the study selection, data extraction and assessment independently. The assessment of risk of bias and data synthesis will be conducted with Review Manager Software (RevMan) V.5.2.Results:The results will provide a high-quality synthesis of current evidence for researchers in this subject area.Conclusion:The conclusion of our study will provide an evidence to judge whether.Acupuncture is an effective intervention for chronic constipation in patients with diabetes mellitus.Ethics and dissemination:Formal ethical approval is not necessary as the data cannot be individualized. The results of this protocol will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal or presented at relevant conferences.PROSPERO registration number:INPLASY202110079.

Acupuncture for Symptomatic Rotator Cuff Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with rotator cuff diseases.<br/>There were 12 electronic databases and 3 trial registries searched up to November 30<sup>th</sup>, 2019. All randomized trials were eligible, regardless of language, date of publication, or settings. The primary outcomes were pain, shoulder function, and proportion of improved participants assessed within 12 weeks of randomization of the trial. The Cochrane risk of bias for the studies was assessed. Effects sizes were presented as a risk ratio, mean difference, or standardized mean difference with a 95% confidence intervals. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach was adopted to rate certainty of evidence.<br/>Of the 3,686 records screened, 28 randomized trials (2,216 participants) were included in this review. The types of acupuncture included manual acupuncture, dry needling, electroacupuncture, acupotomy, warm needle acupuncture, and fire needle acupuncture. All of the studies had an unclear or high risk of bias related to more than 1 domain. Significant benefits of acupuncture in terms of pain and shoulder function were observed in all comparisons, however, the proportion of improved participants was not described in 2 comparisons. There was substantial heterogeneity among meta-analyzed trials. No serious harm was observed. For primary outcomes, the overall certainty of evidence was very low.<br/>There was very low certainty of evidence for the benefits of acupuncture for patients with rotator cuff diseases. The safety of acupuncture remains unclear due to the incompleteness of reporting. Future welldesigned randomized trials with transparent reporting are required.

Acupuncture for Chronic Pain-Related Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective The aim of this systematic review was to summarize and evaluate the existing evidence on the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in relieving chronic pain-related depression (CPRD). Methods We searched seven online databases to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for CPRD published before September 2020. We included studies that used acupuncture as the intervention group, with or without a control group, and the control group was treated with conventional drugs. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. For outcomes, assessments were performed using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and adverse events. Results Eight studies involving 636 participants were identified and included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that single acupuncture treatment and drug treatment have the same effect in improving the HAMD score (MD = −0.14, 95% CI = [−0.88, 0.59], P = 0.71) and alleviating the VAS score (MD = −0.42, 95% CI = [−1.10, −0.27], P = 0.23), but acupuncture treatment is safer (OR = 0.03, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.21], P = 0.0003). In addition, acupuncture combined with drugs (control group) is more beneficial than single-drug treatment in improving the HAMD score (MD = −2.95, 95% CI = [−3.55, −2.36], P < 0.00001) and alleviating the VAS score (MD = −1.06, 95% CI = [−1.65, −0.47], P = 0.0004). Conclusion Acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for CPRD, and acupuncture combined with drug therapy is more effective than single-drug therapy. Nevertheless, the conclusions were limited due to the low quality and a small number of included studies.

Effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic severe functional constipation: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:Acupuncture has been widely used clinically to relieve chronic severe constipation. However, the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic severe constipation is uncertain. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic severe constipation.Methods:Search PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Wanfang Database, China Science, and Technology Journal Database, China Biomedical Literature Database, and search related randomized controlled trials. Two reviewers will independently select studies, collect data, and evaluate methodological quality through the Cochrane Deviation Risk Tool. Revman V.5.3 will be used for meta-analysis.Results:This study will evaluate the current status of acupuncture treatment for chronic severe constipation, aiming to illustrate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture treatment.Conclusion:This study will provide a basis for judging whether acupotomy is effective in treating chronic severe constipation.INPLASY registration number:INPLASY202070002

Acupuncture as add-on treatment for functional dyspepsia: A protocol for systematic review.

Background:Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common functional gastrointestinal disease with a high prevalence. However, due to the limitations of conventional Western treatments, such as acid suppressants, prokinetics, Helicobacter pylori eradication treatment, and antidepressants, the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, is steadily increasing. We describe the methods that will be used to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture as add-on therapies to conventional Western medications in patients with FD.Methods and analysis:A total of 12 English, Korean, and Chinese electronic databases will be searched by 2 researchers from their inception dates to December 2020. Randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture as add-on therapies to conventional Western medications in patients with FD will be included. The primary outcome measure will be the symptom score of FD, and secondary outcome measures will be total effective rate, quality of life, level of gut peptide hormones, incidence of adverse events, and recurrence rate. Data analysis will be performed using the Review Manager version 5.3. The risk of bias of the included studies and the quality of evidence for the main findings will be evaluated using the Cochrane Collaborations risk of bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach, respectively.Conclusion:The findings of this review will provide evidence on the complementary effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for FD for clinicians, patients, and policy makers in decision making.OSF registration number:DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/MXREN (https://osf.io/mxren).