Acupuncture Helps Insomniacs

Research has shown that acupuncture can help people sleep better better than western medicine.  This article I am citing is a review of past studies using randomized controlled trials.  In other words, anti-TCM propagandists cannot use the “non-randomized” or “uncontrolled” excuse not to accept these results.  Sure, I can hear them saying the Chinese did it, so it must be biased – however a lot of the studies reviewed were from western sources, not just Chinese.  Anyway here it is:

Abstract

Background: Acupuncture is commonly used in treating insomnia in China, and clinical studies have shown that acupuncture may have a beneficial effect on insomnia compared with Western medication.

Methods: We included randomized controlled trials on acupuncture for insomnia. We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library (2008 Issue 3), China Network Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), and Wan Fang Database. All searches ended in December 2008. Two authors extracted data and assessed the trials’ quality independently. RevMan 5.0.17 software was used for data analysis with effect estimate presented as relative risk (RR) and mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: Forty-six (46) randomized trials involving 3811 patients were included, and the methodological quality of trials was generally fair in terms of randomization, blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis. Meta-analyses showed a beneficial effect of acupuncture compared with no treatment (MD −3.28, 95% CI −6.10 to −0.46, p=0.02; 4 trials) and real acupressure compared with sham acupressure (MD −2.94, 95% CI −5.77 to −0.11, p=0.04; 2 trials) on total scores of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Acupuncture was superior to medications regarding the number of patients with total sleep duration increased for >3 hours (RR 1.53, 95% CI 1.24–1.88, p<0.0001). However, there was no difference between acupuncture and medications in average sleep duration (MD −0.06, 95% CI −0.30–0.18, p=0.63). Acupuncture plus medications showed better effect than medications alone on total sleep duration (MD 1.09, 95% CI 0.56–1.61, p<0.0001). Similarly, acupuncture plus herbs was significantly better than herbs alone on increase of sleep rates (RR 1.67, 95% CI 1.12–2.50, p=0.01). There were no serious adverse effects with related to acupuncture treatment in the included trials.

Conclusions: Acupuncture appears to be effective in treatment of insomnia. However, further large, rigorous designed trials are warranted.

Okay, okay, once again in English:

1) Studies have shown that acupuncture works better than nothing.  Okay, so maybe it works as a placebo?

2) Studies have shown that putting pressure on real acupoints used for insomnia worked better than putting pressure just anywhere.  So much for placebo.

3) Acupuncture resulted in more patients sleeping more, although it didn’t have that big an effect on the average amount of sleep.

4) Still want your stilnox? Take it while having acupuncture treatment.  Works better than the drugs alone.

5) Acupuncture plus herbs works better than acupuncture alone.  This makes sense because in some cases of insomnia, the Blood is deficient, leading to the Mind not having a place to rest.  In that case, herbs nourish Blood more quickly.

6) No serious adverse effects: meaning any side effects were definitely outweighted by benefits and weren’t dangerous.

Just recently I asked a patient to take Zaoren Anshen Ye for insomnia and am getting great feedback so far.  He says the amount of sleep is the same but the QUALITY of sleep is much better.

And once again, acupuncture FTW!

Huijuan Cao, Xingfang Pan, Hua Li, Jianping Liu. “Acupuncture for Treatment of Insomnia: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. November 2009, 15(11): 1171-1186. doi:10.1089/acm.2009.0041. Accessed December 3, 2009 <http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2009.0041>