A nationwide
matched cohort study in Taiwan showed the acupuncture treatment was effective
on reducing risk of stroke in patients with fibromyalgia compared with patients
with fibromyalgia but not received acupuncture treatment. The data was reported
the results on the Plos One journal.
Fibromyalgia
is a disorder characterized by chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain
accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. The cause of
fibromyalgia is not clear. It is believed that fibromyalgia amplifies painful
sensations by affecting the way the brain and spinal cord process painful and
nonpainful signals. Factors such as genetics, infections and physical and
emotional events may lead to the occurrence of disorder. There is presently no
cure for the condition. Pain reliever, antidepressants, physiotherapy and
counselling should help alleviate symptoms. Acupuncture has been shown to
effectively relief the muscle pain and reduce stress for a long time.
Studies
showed that patients with fibromyalgia, particularly younger patients, had a
higher risk tendency of stroke than those without fibromyalgia. Depression and
sleep disorders, closely linked with fibromyalgia were also associated with a
higher risk of stroke.
A group of
scientists in Taiwan conducted a nationwide matched cohort study to evaluate
the effectiveness of acupuncture in reducing risk of stroke in patients with
fibromyalgia. Patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia between 1 January 2000 and
31 December, 2010 recorded in the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research
were enrolled in the study.
The
comparison between the age, sex and comorbidities, and the hazard ratios of
acupuncture and non-acupuncture cohorts were analysed using a Cox regression
model. The difference in the prevalence of stroke between the acupuncture and
non-acupuncture cohorts was assessed using the Kaplan–Meier method and the
log-rank test. Patients with fibromyalgia were identified and divided into acupuncture
(n=65,487) and non-acupuncture (n=65,487) cohorts with similar distributions in
the baseline characteristics after performing a propensity score matching with
a 1:1 ratio.
The
Kaplan-Meier analysis with the log-rank test showed a significantly lower
cumulative incidence of stroke in the acupuncture cohort than that in the
non-acupuncture cohort (p<0.0001). In the follow-up 5-year period, 4,216
patients in the acupuncture cohort (11.01 per 1000 person-years) compared with
6,849 patients in the non-acupuncture cohort (19.82 per 1000 person-years)
suffered from stroke (adjusted HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.51–0.55).
The data
showed that acupuncture decreased the incidence of stroke regardless of the
patient’s age, sex, comorbidities, and conventional drug use in patients with
fibromyalgia in Taiwan.
Reference:
Acupuncture decreased the risk of stroke among patients with fibromyalgia in Taiwan: A nationwide matched cohort study. Huang MC, Yen HR, Lin CL, Lee YC, Sun MF, Wu MY.PLoS One. 2020 Oct 1;15(10):e0239703. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239703.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33002009/
