Acupuncture may be more effective than drugs in treating
Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Acupuncture improves effect of drugs for treating AD
in terms of enhancing cognitive function. A systematic review study reported
its data in the journal Medicine.
There is increasing number of reports regarding clinical
trials of acupuncture treatment for AD during past 10 years. Most of studies
were performed in China and were published in Chinese. The effectiveness and
safety of acupuncture on AD has not been systematic reviewed until recently.
Dr. Zhou and colleagues in China evaluated the
effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in treating AD by systematic review and
meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used for contrasting
and combining results from different studies in the hope of identifying
patterns among studies. Ten randomized controlled studies with a total of 585
subjects were used in the study.
They found that the combined results from 6
randomized controlled studies showed acupuncture is better than drug at
improving scores on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale, indicating
the enhancement in the cognitive function. Evidence from pooled data of 3
trials revealed that acupuncture plus drug denepezil was more effective at
improving MMSE scale than denepezil alone. In a broad review they found that
only 2 out of 141 acupuncture clinical trials reported the incidence of acupuncture-related
adverse effect. Only 7 of 3416 patients reported to have adverse reactions
relevant to acupuncture.
Authors conclude that “Acupuncture may be more effective
than drugs and may enhance the effect of drugs for treating AD in terms of improving
cognitive function. Acupuncture may also be more effective than drugs at
improving AD patients’ ability to carry out their daily lives.”
However, more clinical studies with better protocol
design and better standards are urgently needed to prove the effectiveness of
acupuncture in treating AD in more countries.
Reference:
J Zhou et al., The effectiveness and safety of
acupuncture for patients with Alzheimer disease: a systematic review and
meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Jun; 94(22):e933.
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