Acupuncture and Bronchial Asthma: A Long-Term Randomized Study of the Effects of Real Versus Sham Acupuncture Compared to Controls in Patients with Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

In view of the fact that the effects after real and sham acupuncture compared to controls who had no needling at all were small, in all likelihood clinically irrelevant, our data do not seem to support the use of acupuncture in the management of pharmacologically well-treated patients with mild-to-moderate persistent asthma.

ARIA update: I—Systematic review of complementary and alternative medicine for rhinitis and asthma

“…11 The efficacy of acupuncture in asthma has been evaluated in several randomized controlled trials. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Few data are available for rhinitis.…”

“…On the basis of the methodologic quality of the studies, the authors concluded more than 10 years ago that beneficial effects of acupuncture were more likely to be found in the low-quality studies (small sample, not randomized, and inadequate analysis). Looking at the available literature (Table III), [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] many studies have an inadequate methodology (ie, a Jadad score of less than 3).…”

“…On the other hand, some studies in asthma [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] were of good methodologic quality, but the majority of them showed no difference between active and sham intervention. Medici et al 19 found a decrease in blood eosinophils in the active group and a transient clinical improvement.…”

Complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment and diagnosis of asthma and allergic diseases

“…randomised, controlled and blinded) [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], the effects of acupuncture are not different from the placebo treatments. Of note, only in two studies [21,26] transient and mild benefits were demonstrated. Thus, the conclusion derived from meta analysis studied and clinical trials is that acupuncture is not effective to treat asthma.…”

Complementary and alternative medicine in allergy, otitis media, and asthma

“…Medici et al [47] studied 66 asthmatic patients in a randomized, single-blinded, controlled study who received either acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or no acupuncture in addition to conventional medications. Only the blood eosinophil count at 4 months showed a significant reduction in the real acupuncture group compared with the sham acupuncture group.…”