Disease Based Studies

Disease Based Studies

1. Chronic Low Back Pain (Witt, 2006): Largest study to date demonstrates acupunctures effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in the treatment of chronic low back pain based on functionality, pain and quality of life assessed directly after, 3 months after, and 6 months after treatment. 11,630 patients.
2. Acute Cerebral Infarction (Pei, 2001): “Early acupuncture treatment for acute stroke patients may improve motor functions, and consequently the activities of daily living.” 86 patients.
3. Acute Spinal Cord Injury (Wong, 2003): “The use of concomitant auricular and electrical acupuncture therapies, when implemented early in acute spinal cord injury, can contribute to significant neurologic and functional recoveries.” 100 subjects.
4. Breech birth (Cardini, 1998): “Cardini and Weixin found that moxibustion (stimulation of an acupuncture point by heat generated from burning a specific herb) is helpful for correction of breech presentation in late pregnancy. 260 subjects.
5. Cocaine Dependence (Avants, 2000): “Findings from the current study suggest that acupuncture shows promise for the treatment of cocaine dependence. Further investigation of this treatment modality appears to be warranted.” 82 subjects.
6. Dysmenorrhea, Primary (Pouresmail, 2002): “the therapeutic efficacies of acupressure and Ibuprofen were similar with no significant difference, and were significantly better than the placebo. Thus acupressure, with no complications, is recommended as an alternative and also a better choice in the decrease of the severity of PD.” 216 subjects.
7. In Vitro Fertilization (Dieterle, 2006): “The clinical pregnancy rate and ongoing pregnancy rate (33.6% and 28.4%, respectively) were significantly higher than in group II (15.6% and 13.8%). Luteal-phase acupuncture has a positive effect on the outcome of IVF/ICSI.” 225 patients
8. Labor pain (Skilnand E, 2002 & Ramnero, 2002): “The results indicate that acupuncture reduces the experience of pain in labor. A secondary outcome of acupuncture was a shorter delivery time, which mainly, if not exclusively, can be explained by the reduced need for epidural analgesia.” 210 subjects.
9. Migraine without Aura (Allais, 2002): “Acupuncture proved to be adequate for migraine prophylaxis. Relative to flunarizine, acupuncture treatment exhibited greater effectiveness in the first months of therapy and superior tolerability.” Comparison without placebo groups. 160 subjects.
10. Nausea and Vomiting after Abdominal Hysterectomy (Kim, 2002): 1 group each for 2 points, and one placebo group. “Capsicum plaster at either the Korean hand acupuncture point K-D2 or the Pericardium 6 acupoint reduces postoperative nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing abdominal hysterectomy.” 160 subjects.
11. Nausea and Vomiting; Comparing and Combining Acupressure and Zofran (White, 2002): “The ReliefBand compared favorably to ondansetron (4 mg intravenously) when used for prophylaxis against postoperative nausea and vomiting. Furthermore, the acustimulation device enhanced the antiemetic efficacy of ondansetron after plastic surgery.” 120 subjects.
12. Nausea and Vomiting in Children (Wang SM, 2002): “In children, P6 acupoint injections are as effective as droperidol in controlling early postoperative nausea and vomiting.” 4 groups of 43-50 children.
13. Osteoarthritis of Knee (Berman, 2004): “”Overall, those who received acupuncture had a 40 percent decrease in pain and a nearly 40 percent improvement in function compared to baseline assessments. This trial, which builds upon our previous NCCAM-funded research, establishes that acupuncture is an effective complement to conventional arthritis treatment and can be successfully employed as part of a multidisciplinary approach to treating the symptoms of osteoarthritis.” 570 subjects.
14. Smoking Cessation (Bier, 2002): Quasi-factorial design, sham-controlled. “Acupuncture and education, alone and in combination, significantly reduce smoking; however, combined they show a significantly greater effect, as seen in subjects with a greater pack-year history.” 141 subjects.