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Acupuncture: not just needles?

Delayed marriage is a prominent trend among Chinese citizens in Hong Kong. Such substantial delays expectedly postpone the age of pregnancy, to the extent that aging has become a risk factor for female infertility. There are many underlying reasons for female infertility. Acupuncture has been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and is suggested to be effective for treating infertility. The objective of this study was to observe the outcome of acupuncture treatment on infertile females with some cases supplemented with CM.

In this case series, female patients who sought medical consultations for infertility were clinically observed. They were treated either with acupuncture alone or with prescriptions of Chinese medicines (CM), based on individual's condition and/or pathogenesis of the disease. There was no obvious major cause of infertility in terms of Western medical diagnosis, yet 15 patients were classified as having “Stagnation of Liver qi” according to Chinese medicine diagnosis theory. Twenty-one patients who completed the course of treatment were studied. Eight patients were treated with acupuncture only, while the remaining 13 patients received acupuncture treatment supplemented with CM.

Over a period of two years there were 14 women who were successful in becoming pregnant (66.7%) and 7 patients were not yet pregnant upon termination of treatment. None of the 21 cases exhibited any adverse effects.

These observations suggest that acupuncture, either with or without CM supplementation, could be an effective option for treating infertility.

En esta investigación clínica se pondrá a prueba la eficacia del tratamiento de rutina en la enfermedad de Parkinson (EP) junto con la acupuntura auricular permanente frente al tratamiento de rutina sin acupuntura. El trabajo tiene como objetivo principal comparar la eficacia a 12 meses del tratamiento farmacológico más acupuntura con agujas permanentes frente al tratamiento farmacológico sin acupuntura, mediante las puntuaciones obtenidas en una Escala Unificada de la Enfermedad de Parkinson (Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale).

La población de la investigación clínica está constituida por pacientes en tratamiento farmacológico para la EP. ¿De dónde se extrajo la muestra? Los participantes de la investigación son pacientes diagnosticados de EP que se encuentran bajo tratamiento farmacológico. Los puntos de inserción de las agujas son individualizados. Se implantan entre 100 y 120 agujas, tantas como los síntomas lo requieran. Los pacientes que reciban el proceso de no acupuntura tendrán un procedimiento idéntico, con el mismo número de agujas, pero sin que ninguna aguja penetre permanentemente en las orejas.

Debido al reducido número de la muestra (N = 32), no ha sido posible realizar el análisis estadístico pertinente para evaluar cuán significativas son las diferencias que se presentan entre ambos grupos. En su lugar, se realiza un análisis descriptivo de las variables. Dichos resultados indicaron que las agujas Forever Needle confieren una mayor estabilidad al tratamiento farmacológico de la EP y presentan una mejora respecto a las complicaciones en el tratamiento y menos modificaciones en el tratamiento (reducciones, aumentos, inclusión de nuevos fármacos).

Se concluye que en esta investigación no queda establecida la eficacia de las agujas permanentes (Forever Needle) en comparación con la eficacia obtenida en el grupo sin implantación permanente.

A clinical study is performed to compare the efficacy of the routine treatment in Parkinson's disease (PD) plus permanent auricular acupuncture versus routine treatment without acupuncture. The main aim of the study is to compare the efficacy at 12 months of pharmacological treatment plus acupuncture with permanent needles versus pharmacological treatment with no acupuncture, using the scores obtained on a unified Parkinson's disease rating scale and pharmacological treatment. The study population consisted of patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and on pharmacological treatment. The insertion of the needle points were individualised, with between 100 and 120 needles being inserted, or as many as the symptoms required. The patients that received the non-acupuncture process would have an identical procedure, with the same number of needles but with none of the needles permanently inserted in the ears. Due to the reduced sample number (n=32), it was not possible to perform the appropriate statistical analysis to evaluate any significant differences between the two groups, with a descriptive analysis of the variables being performed instead. The results indicated that permanent needles (Forever Needles), leads to a greater stability of the pharmacological treatment for PD, and showed an improvement as regards the complications in the treatment (reductions, increases, inclusion of new drugs. On the other hand, it is concluded that the efficacy of the Forever Needles, compared to those of the group without permanent insertion for the treatment of PD, could not be established in this study.

Acupuncture is often used for primary dysmenorrhea. But there is no convincing evidence due to low methodological quality. We aim to assess immediate effect of acupuncture at specific acupoint compared with unrelated acupoint and nonacupoint on primary dysmenorrhea.

The Acupuncture Analgesia Effect in Primary Dysmenorrhoea-II is a multicenter controlled trial conducted in six large hospitals of China. Patients who met inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to classic acupoint (N = 167), unrelated acupoint (N = 167), or non-acupoint (N = 167) group on a 1:1:1 basis. They received three sessions with electro-acupuncture at a classic acupoint (Sanyinjiao, SP6), or an unrelated acupoint (Xuanzhong, GB39), or nonacupoint location, respectively. The primary outcome was subjective pain as measured by a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS). Measurements were obtained at 0, 5, 10, 30, and 60 minutes following the first intervention. In addition, patients scored changes of general complaints using Cox retrospective symptom scales (RSS-Cox) and 7-point verbal rating scale (VRS) during three menstrual cycles. Secondary outcomes included VAS score for average pain, pain total time, additional in-bed time, and proportion of participants using analgesics during three menstrual cycles.

Five hundred and one people underwent random assignment. The primary comparison of VAS scores following the first intervention demonstrated that classic acupoint group was more effective both than unrelated acupoint (−4.0 mm, 95% CI −7.1 to −0.9, P = 0.010) and nonacupoint (−4.0 mm, 95% CI −7.0 to −0.9, P = 0.012) groups. However, no significant differences were detected among the three acupuncture groups for RSS-Cox or VRS outcomes. The per-protocol analysis showed similar pattern. No serious adverse events were noted.

Specific acupoint acupuncture produced a statistically, but not clinically, significant effect compared with unrelated acupoint and nonacupoint acupuncture in primary dysmenorrhea patients. Future studies should focus on effects of multiple points acupuncture on primary dysmenorrhea.

Acupuncture is often used for primary dysmenorrhea.

To assess the efficacy of a single point of acupuncture in the management of primary dysmenorrhea compared with sham acupuncture and no acupuncture.

Patients with primary dysmenorrhea were randomly assigned to acupoint group (n = 50), unrelated acupoint group (n = 50), nonacupoint group (n = 46), or no acupuncture group (n = 48). Acupuncture and sham acupuncture were administered once–daily for 3 days with electro–acupuncture at Sanyinjiao (SP6) that was specifically designed to treat primary dysmenorrhea, or an unrelated acupoint (Xuanzhong, GB39), or nonacupoint location. The primary outcome was pain intensity as measured by a 100–mm visual analog scale (VAS) at baseline; 5, 10, 30, and 60 minutes following the start of the first intervention. Cox retrospective symptom scale (RSS), verbal rating scale (VRS), pain total time, and proportion of participants using analgesics were also recorded during three menstrual cycles.

The primary comparison of VAS scores demonstrated that patients receiving acupuncture (−15.56 mm, 95% CI −22.16 to −8.95, P < 0.001), unrelated acupoint (−18.14 mm, 95% CI −24.81 to −11.47, P < 0.001), and nonacupoint (−10.96 mm, 95% CI −17.62 to −4.30, P = 0.001) treatment presented significant improvements compared with no acupuncture group. There were no significant differences among the four groups with respect to secondary outcomes.

Acupuncture was better than no acupuncture for relieving the pain of dysmenorrhea following a single point of acupuncture, but no differences were detected between acupoint acupuncture and unrelated acupoint acupuncture, acupoint acupuncture and nonacupoint acupuncture.