Purpose To evaluate the effect of acupuncture therapy on visual function of patients with retinitis-pigmentosa (RP). Methods In a prospective study, 23 RP subjects received ten sessions of body-acupuncture. Pre and post-treatment evaluations included best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), near visual acuity (NVA), and static 30-2 perimetry. Results UCVA, BCVA...

There is almost universal agreement that the quality of clinical trials of acupuncture is poor. There is an urgent need to improve their quality. The author develops here a list of 45 criteria important in the design, implementation, and writing up of controlled clinical acupuncture trials. This list has been compiled after examining the quality assessment criteria used in meta-analyses and sys...

The role of acupuncture in facilitating smoking cessation is controversial. A systematic review was undertaken, incorporating meta-analytic techniques, of all the available randomized controlled trials examining the effectiveness of acupuncture in smoking cessation. Based on the data from nine trials involving 2707 patients, the odds ratio of abstinence at 6-12 months' follow-up is 1.48 (95% co...

BACKGROUND Insomnia increases in frequency as women approach and pass through menopause. Studies have not shown acupuncture efficacy for insomnia in postmenopausal women. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy on sleep parameters, depression symptoms and quality of life in postmenopausal women with insomnia. METHODS This study included 18 p...

A 30-year-old African-American woman diagnosed in 2006 with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) was seen in the clinic in 2010 and the diagnosis confirmed excluding underlying disorders. Acupuncture was administered bilaterally at the LI4 Hegu acupuncture points for 5 min twice weekly for 2 months, which resulted in improvement in pain severity, joint stiffness and the colour of her fingers and t...

PURPOSE Dyspnea is a common and distressing symptom for patients with lung cancer (LC) because of disease burden, therapy toxicity, and comorbid illnesses. Acupuncture is a centuries-old therapy with biological plausibility for relief of dyspnea in this setting. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of acupuncture for dyspnea among patients with LC. ...

A 30-year-old African-American woman diagnosed in 2006 with primary Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) was seen in the clinic in 2010 and the diagnosis confi rmed excluding underlying disorders. Acupuncture was administered bilaterally at the LI4 Hegu acupuncture points for 5 min twice weekly for 2 months, which resulted in improvement in pain severity, joint stiffness and the colour of her fi ngers and...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to assess the efficacy of a part-standardised verum acupuncture procedure, in accordance with the rules of traditional Chinese medicine, compared with that of part-standardised sham acupuncture and standard migraine prophylaxis with beta blockers, calcium-channel blockers, or antiepileptic drugs in the reduction of migraine days 26 weeks after the start of treatment. ME...

We investigated manual needle and laser needle acupuncture as a complementary therapy for patients with burnout syndrome. Twenty patients with a mean age ± SD of 38.7 ± 8.4 years were assigned to two groups, each consisting of ten patients. One group was treated with manual needle acupuncture and the other with laser needle acupuncture. Heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and a new score ...