Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society
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Hypothesis Studies indicate that menopausal symptoms are relieved by acupuncture. Additional studies have suggested that acupuncture may affect heart rate variability (HRV). This paper reports a pilot study that investigated whether menopausal symptoms responded to acupuncture, and if changes in the spectral analysis of HRV, either suppression of low frequency or augmentation of high frequency bands, corresponded with symptom report. Methods/interventions 12 healthy menopausal subjects were enrolled in this feasibility study. At baseline, subjects were experiencing moderately distressing menopausal symptoms, scoring at least 22 of a possible 44 points on the Menopausal Rating Scale. 10 traditional Chinese medicine-based, protocol acupuncture treatments were administered over a 4 week period, three times a week for 2 weeks, followed by twice a week for 2 weeks. Outcome measures Menopausal Rating Scale questionnaire, 11 menopausal symptoms were evaluated on a zero to four severity scale via self-administered daily checklist for 4 weeks. Dynamic measures of HRV (autoregressive model) were captured before, during and after acupuncture at each session. Spectral analysis of the heart rate was used to compute power in the low frequency and high frequency bands, and their ratio. ⋯ All subjects complied fully with the protocol without any reported adverse events. While all 11 symptoms showed significant improvement, and one HRV measure changed, on average over the study period, there was essentially no support for a relationship between HRV, menopausal symptom report and acupuncture intervention.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Does needling sensation (de qi) affect treatment outcome in pain? Analysis of data from a larger single-blind, randomised controlled trial.
Insertion of an acupuncture needle into an acupuncture point typically generates a range of sensations called 'de qi'. Most acupuncturists are taught that obtaining de qi is important when treating patients with pain but this can be quite uncomfortable for patients. ⋯ These data suggest that the presence and intensity of de qi has no effect on the pain relief obtained for patients with OA. This result may have implications for both acupuncture treatment and for future trial methodology.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of electroacupuncture on local anaesthesia for inguinal hernia repair: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.
To assess the effect of electroacupuncture (EA), akin to percutaneous electroneurostimulation, on pain and biochemical measures during and after inguinal hernia repair. ⋯ The sample size was too small to draw any conclusions about the effect of EA on pain and other parameters following inguinal hernia surgery, but our observations suggest that future studies in this area are justified.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Implementation of acupuncture and acupressure under surgical procedures in children: a pilot study.
To test the feasibility of research on acupuncture and acupressure for children undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy. ⋯ The results encouraged performance of the main study according to the research protocol.