Acupuncture for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): A multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial

Item

Title

Acupuncture for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): A multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial

Author(s)

Journal Publication

Date

2016

volume

95(40)

pages

e4879

Research Type

RCT

Keywords

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture has been suggested to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in China. However, current evidence is insufficient to draw a firm conclusion regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture in COPD. Therefore, this multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for treating patients with COPD. METHODS: This is a two-arm, parallel group, multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial with concealed allocation, and participants, assessor, and analyst blinding. Seventy-two participants with COPD were recruited and randomly divided into 2 groups (real acupuncture group and sham acupuncture group) in a 1:1 ratio. Patients received either real or sham needling at the same acupoints 3 times weekly for 8 weeks. The primary outcome was dyspnea on exertion evaluated using the 6-minute walk test. In addition, health-related quality of life was also evaluated. Measurements were obtained at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment. RESULTS: Six-minute walking distance measurements and health-related quality of life were significantly better in the real acupuncture group than that in the sham acupuncture group. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that acupuncture can be used as an adjunctive therapy to reduce dyspnea in patients with COPD.

doi

10.1097/MD.0000000000004879

pmid

PMID:27749542; PMCID:PMC5059044

View on Pubmed

Language

English

Number of Participants

72

has study population number

72

Item sets