Effect of acupuncture on exercise-induced asthma

Chow, O. K. W.; So, S. Y.; Lam, Wah‐Kit; Yu, D. Y. C.; Yeung, Chun

doi:10.1007/bf02713881

Cited by 36 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Over 200 possible trials were identified but only 12 satisfied the inclusion criteria [1,2,6,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. One trial published in a Chinese journal [22] could not be recovered as the authors were only able to retrieve a poor translation of the abstract summarising the results, which did not provide the information needed to extract any useful summary data.…”

Section: Description Of the Clinical Trialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of acupuncture in asthma: systematic review and meta-analysis of published data from 11 randomised controlled trials

Martín¹,

Donaldson²,

Villarroel³

et al. 2002

European Respiratory Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contradictory results from randomised controlled trials of acupuncture in asthma suggest both a beneficial and detrimental effect. The authors conducted a formal systematic review and meta-analysis of all randomised clinical trials in the published literature that have compared acupuncture at real and placebo points in asthma patients.The authors searched for trials published in the period 1970-2000. Trials had to measure at least one of the following objective outcomes: peak expiratory flow rate, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity. Estimates of the standarised mean difference, between acupuncture and placebo were computed for each trial and combined to estimate the overall effect. Hetereogeneity was investigated in terms of the characteristics of the individual studies.Twelve trials met the inclusion criteria but data from one could not be obtained. Individual patient data were available in only three. Standardised differences between means ranging from 0.071 to 0.133, in favour of acupuncture, were obtained. The overall effect was not conventionally significant and it corresponds to an approximate difference in FEV1 means of 1.7. After exploring hetereogenenity, it was found that studies where bronchoconstriction was induced during the experiment showed a conventionally significant effect.This meta-analysis did not find evidence of an effect of acupuncture in reducing asthma. However, the meta-analysis was limited by shortcomings of the individual trials, in terms of sample size, missing information, adjustment of baseline characteristics and a possible bias against acupuncture introduced by the use of placebo points that may not be completely inactive. There was a suggestion of preferential publication of trials in favour of acupuncture. There is an obvious need to conduct a full-scale randomised clinical trial addressing these limitations and the prognostic value of the aetiology of the disease. Eur Respir J 2002; 20: 846-852 Several randomised clinical trials have reported a benefit from acupuncture in the treatment of asthma [1,2], but generally results appear contradictory, suggesting both beneficial and detrimental effects [3,4,5,6]. The efficacy of acupuncture in asthma has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt [7]. This may be due to differences in trial design and mode of treatment or to the small size of the trials. In terms of design, the insertion of a needle prevents the use of blindness to remove the placebo effect and therefore needles are sometimes inserted in "placebo points" [8]. The wide range of outcomes measured using objective tests (peak flow rates) to perceived breathlessness or anxiety introduces another source of variation. Differences in the mode of treatment include a diversity of acupuncture points, periods of stimulation and methods of needle insertion [9]. The size of all the individual studies was only a fraction of the sample size given by a conventional power requirement: 550 patients would be required to detect a standardised d...

show abstract

Section: Description Of the Clinical Trialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of acupuncture in asthma: systematic review and meta-analysis of published data from 11 randomised controlled trials

Martín¹,

Donaldson²,

Villarroel³

et al. 2002

European Respiratory Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most trials investigated patients of a wide age span, while three trials had included children only [13,14,25], All trials were monocentric and seemed to be performed with out-patients. As diagnoses and inclusion criteria were not reported uniformly, these issues are only described for individual trials (see table 1).…”

Section: Patientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Four further studies were on the treatment of exercise- [13][14][15] or histamine-induced [16] asthma attacks and one on the prevention of methacholine-induced attacks [17]; all of these studies had a cross-over design, included an additional no-treatment control phase, and some of them further control strategies. In one trial patients who had a spon taneous acute asthma attack were treated [18].…”

Section: Study Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In five trials [13,14,16,20,22] existing acupuncture points were needled which were thought not to be appropriate for asthma treatment ('placebo' acupunc ture). In six trials [11,12.17, 19, 21.…”

Section: Control Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one trial used individualized prescription of points according to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine [21]. In one trial needles were inserted at individual painful points [11], The re maining four trials used standard prescriptions of different strategies (ear acupuncture [13], laser acupuncture on tradi tional points [15,25], and laser acupuncture on traditional and ear points [23]). Ilie most frequently used points were Extra 17 (extra point 17 Dinchuan, in nine trails), LU 7 (Lung point 7, in seven trials), and CV17 (conception vessel point 17. in six trials).…”

Section: Treatment Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Randomized Clinical Trials of Acupuncture for Asthma – a Systematic Review

Linde¹,

Worku²,

Stör³

et al. 1996

Complement Med Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To provide an overview of the evidence from randomized clinical trials about the efficacy and effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma. Data Sources: Relevant articles were identified through Medline, Embase and databases of complementary medicine, checking of references in articles and contacts with researchers. Study Selection: Randomized clinical trials of acupuncture in asthma patients. Data Extraction and Quality Assessment: Trial characteristics were extracted by two independent observers on standardized forms. Description and adequateness of the investigated acupuncture strategy were assessed by four experienced acupuncturists in a blind fashion. Methodological quality was assessed by two unblinded reviewers using two scales for internal validity. Results: 15 eligible trials (all with a ‘dummy acupuncture’ control condition and patients blinded, 10 with evaluators blinded, 8 with cross-over) including a total of 307 patients (range 12 to 39) were identified. The trials differed considerably regarding patients, study models, treatment and control interventions, methodological quality, adequateness of acupuncture, and outcome measures precluding quantitative meta-analysis. Study results were highly contradictory. Conclusions: There is insufficient data to draw reliable conclusions about the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for asthma. As acupuncture is frequently applied in this condition there is urgent need for further research, which should focus on pragmatic, clinically relevant questions.

show abstract