Acupuncture for Dyspepsia in Pregnancy: A Prospective, Randomised, Controlled Study

Abstract

Objectives: This study was undertaken to describe under real-life conditions the effects of acupuncture on symptomatic dyspepsia during pregnancy and to compare this with a group of patients undergoing conventional treatment alone. Methods: A total of 42 conventionally treated pregnant women were allocated by chance into two groups to be treated, or not, by acupuncture. They reported the severity of symptoms and the disability these were causing in daily aspects of life such as sleeping and eating, using a numerical rating scale. The study also observed the use of medications.

Adverse event reporting in studies of penetrating acupuncture during pregnancy: a systematic review

“…A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) diagram [24] (Figure 1) identifies the different stages of the selection process. Seventeen studies [3][4][5][6][7][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] were included (Table 1) and systematically reviewed.…”

“…Ten studies investigated acupuncture's effect on pain [3, 26, 27, 29-33, 35, 36]; three studies investigated nausea and/or vomiting [4,25,34]; one investigated depression [6]; one emotional complaints [28] one dyspepsia [5] and another insomnia [7]. Thirteen studies used an RCT design [3-7, 25, 27-30, 32, 34, 36]; three employed a case study design [26,31,33], and another used a retrospective cohort design [35].…”

“…A recent Cochrane review [1] reported moderate quality evidence in support of acupuncture for pelvic girdle pain and European guidelines recommend its use [2]. Favorable outcomes have been reported when acupuncture has been used for other pregnancy-related disorders such as low back pain [3], nausea and vomiting [4], dyspepsia [5], depression [6] and insomnia [7].…”

Forbidden Points’ in Pregnancy: Historical Wisdom?

“…17 They are also avoided in research and case histories examining the effect of acupuncture in halting premature labour. 18 19 Where these points are used-for example, LI4, BL32 and BL60 for pelvic girdle pain 20 and LI4 for heartburn, 21 they are used on women after 12 and before 36 gestational weeks. In view of the physiology of pregnancy, as discussed above, it may be that the actions of these acupuncture points are not as activating at these times as potentially they may be in the early and late stages of a pregnancy.…”

Could Acupuncture at the So-Called Forbidden Points be Harmful to the Health of Pregnant Wistar Rats?

“…2 Being a nonpharmacological treatment, it avoids problems that many drugs may cause in this sensitive period of a woman's life. Good results with different conditions (such as nausea and vomiting, 3 low back pain, 4 depression, 5 insomnia 6 and dyspeptic problems 7 ) have encouraged its use by researchers and practitioners. Notwithstanding these results, concerns remain about using acupuncture in pregnancy because it has been hypothesised that some points are forbidden in pregnant women due to potential abortive effects.…”