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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Acupuncture and autism

Categories: Babies & children / paediatrics, Psychological / emotional, Autism

Autism is a complex developmental disability that normally appears within the first three years of life. It is estimated to occur in up to one in every 500 children, is more common in boys than girls, and can severely affect a childs social interactions and communication skills. Many children develop normally for the first year of life, even walking, talking or crawling earlier then the average ch ...

Acupuncture & depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

The UK's Mental Health Foundation has proposed that acupuncture should be made more available to depressed patients. They carried out an investigation into ear acupuncture and its potential benefits for women with mental health problems. Eight women volunteers with long term mental health problems, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, took part, receiv ...

Acupuncture for post-traumatic stress

Categories: Psychological / emotional

The University of New Mexico Trauma & Anxiety Research Group is halfway through a 2-year study into the use of acupuncture in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The group worked with an panel of 22 doctors of oriental medicine to develop an acupuncture strategy. The $250,000 study, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Med ...

Acupuncture & anxiety

Categories: Psychological / emotional

In this study, patients who required ambulance transport secondary to medical conditions, were randomised to receive auricular acupressure either at the 'relaxation point or at a sham point. Patients treated with the true point reported significantly less anxiety than patients in the sham group on arrival at the hospital. Further, their perception of pain during treatment, as well as treatment out ...

Chinese herbs & dementia

Categories: Psychological / emotional

In a Japanese study, 33 patients with mild to moderate dementia were assigned to received either Ba Wei Di Huang Wan (Eight-Ingredient Pill with Rehmannia), 7.5g/day or placebo for 8 weeks. At the end of the study period, the treatment group showed significantly improved cognitive functioning and ability to complete day-to-day activities, compared to no improvement in the placebo group. The herbs ...

Acupuncture for pregnancy depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Pharmaceutical medication is largely unsuitable for depression during pregnancy and therefore any non-pharmaceutical alternative is potentially of great value. In a study carried out at Stanford University, 61 women with major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: i. Individually tailored true acupuncture designed to treat their depression, ii. True acupunc ...

Chinese herbs for cognitive development

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A herbal supplement known as GETO, containing Ren Shen (Ginseng Radix), Yin Yang Huo (Epimedii Herba), Yuan Zhi (Polygalae Radix) and two other unnamed herbs might help prevent dementia. Seventy-five patients with mild cognitive impairment were given either GETO, piracetam (a drug thought to improve cognitive function) or placebos for three months.. Those who took the Chinese herbs demonstrated si ...

Xiao Yao Wan and Depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial, the efficacy of i. Carbamazepine (CBZ), ii, CBZ plus the Chinese herbal medicine Free and Easy Wanderer (FEWP/Xiao Yao Wan), and iii. Placebo, was compared in the treatment of 124 bipolar depressed and 111 manic patients over a twelve week period. CBZ plus FEWP produced significantly better outcomes on three measures of depression ...

Laser acupuncture and depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

In a double-blind randomised controlled trial, active laser acupuncture was found to be significantly more effective for the treatment of mild to moderate depression (at twelve weeks from trial onset) compared to sham laser acupuncture. In this trial, the practitioner did not know during treatment whether the laser device was active or not and was asked not to communicate with the patient other th ...

Acupuncture & Depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Previous studies have shown acupuncture at depression specific points to be superior to acupuncture at points not specific to depression (see NEWS 78 and 59). In a recent study, however, it appears that the non specific acupuncture was superior to the specific acupuncture. Study participants (151) were randomised to receive depression specific acupuncture, non-specific acupuncture or no treatment ...

Acupressure decreases dementia agitation

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A pilot study has suggests that acupressure can decrease the agitated behaviour associated with dementia. Thirty-one subjects with dementia were assigned to a six-week acupressure treatment programme consisting of five minutes treatment, twice a day, five days a week, for four weeks. After a treatment-free period of one week, all the subjects then served as controls, undergoing a four-week protoco ...

Acupuncture reduces anxiety of eye surgery

Categories: Psychological / emotional, Eye disorders

An Italian study has found that patients undergoing cataract removal are less anxious after receiving acupuncture. Participants underwent phacoemulsification, in which the cloudy eye lens is emulsified with an ultrasound probe, before being aspirated and replaced by an artificial lens. The procedure is carried out under topical anaesthesia while the patient is awake and can therefore provoke signi ...

Acupuncture for post-traumatic stress

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A pilot study has evaluated the efficacy of acupuncture for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants diagnosed with PTSD were randomised to either an empirically developed acupuncture treatment, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), or a wait-list control. The primary outcome measure was self-reported PTSD symptoms, assessed at baseline, end of treatment and at three-month follow-up. Acu ...

Acupuncture for anxiety

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A systematic review of the evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of anxiety disorders has shown positive findings. Authors based at London's University of Westminster performed searches of the major biomedical databases as well as specialist CAM databases. Twelve controlled trials were located, of which ten were randomised controlled trials (RCTs). All trials reported positive ...

Acupuncture effective for depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Chinese researchers have carried out a meta-analysis to assess the benefits of acupuncture as a treatment for depression. The analysis included eight small randomised controlled trials involving a total of 477 subjects. Their results suggested that acupuncture was an effective treatment for depression and could significantly reduce the severity of the disease. (Is acupuncture beneficial in depress ...

QIGONG FOR STRESS

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A small American study has investigated the effectiveness of a qigong training program in reducing stress in hospital staff. Thirty-seven subjects were randomly assigned to a six-week intervention of either qigong practice or a waiting list. The qigong group demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of perceived stress compared to the control group and also experienced a significant reduc ...

Acupressure at yintang reduces kids pre-op anxiety

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Acupressure at Yintang (M-HN-3) has been found to reduce preprocedural anxiety in children undergoing endoscopic examination. In the American study, fifty-two children were randomised to receive an acupressure bead placed either at Yintang (M-HN-3) or at a sham point above the left eyebrow. Children in the Yintang group were found to have experienced reduced anxiety during the 30 minute pre-operat ...

AURICULAR ACUPUNCTURE FOR REPETITIVE SELF-INJURY

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A Canadian pilot study has tested the feasibility and potential efficacy of auricular acupuncture for the treatment of repetitive self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in depressed adolescents. In addition to providing relief of depressive symptoms there is evidence of an addictive component to this behaviour. Nine adolescent patients received three acupuncture treatments, once a week, over three weeks. ...

Acupuncture effective for depression

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture for various depressive conditions has concluded that it is safe and constitutes an effective treatment for some forms of depression. Of 207 clinical studies of acupuncture retrieved from databases, twenty were considered to be of high enough quality to be subjected to meta-ananysis. The results showed that the efficacy of acupuncture as monother ...

ACUPUNCTURE LOWERS ANTIDEPRESSANT REQUIREMENT

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Adding acupuncture to medical treatment for depression can reduce the amount of drugs needed to treat the condition and therefore reduce the side-effects of medication. In a Chinese randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled study 80 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) were randomised to two groups: one received standardised verum acupuncture, 10 mg/day fluoxetine and placebo (VA) and the ...