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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.

SEVEN-STAR NEEDLING IMPROVES LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Acupuncture stimulation may help improve language and social functioning in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) according to a study carried out in Hong Kong. Thirty-two children with ASD were randomly assigned to treatment or a waiting list control. Those in the treatment group received 30 sessions of stimulation using a seven-star needle on the head, front and back of their body over ...

ACUPUNCTURE APPEARS TO BE EFFECTIVE IN TREATMENT OF INSOMNIA

Categories: Psychological / emotional

Acupuncture appears to be effective in the treatment of insomnia according to a systematic review and meta-analysis carried out by Chinese authors. Forty-six randomised trials involving 3811 patients were included and the methodological quality of trials was judged to be generally fair. Meta-analyses showed a beneficial effect for acupuncture compared with no treatment, and for real acupressure co ...

ACUPUNCTURE BENEFICIAL FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA

Categories: Psychological / emotional

A Korean systematic review of studies examining the use of acupuncture in treating the symptoms of schizophrenia has provided some evidence for its effectiveness. Thirteen randomised clinical trials (RCTs) met the inclusion criteria. One RCT reported significant effects of electro-acupuncture (EA) plus drug therapy for improving auditory hallucinations and positive symptoms compared with sham EA p ...

ACUMOXA FOR BREECH BABIES

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study has evaluated the effects of acupuncture and moxibustion on the behaviour of breech foetuses. Women were treated by stimulating Zhiyin BL-67 twice a week for 20 minutes. Fourteen cases were treated using both acupuncture and moxibustion, 15 cases by moxibustion and ten cases by acupuncture. In 56% of cases, foetal position converted from breech to cephalic (80% success rate for moxibustion ...

ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE EFFECTIVE FOR LABOUR PAIN

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

In a study investigating the efficacy of electro-acupuncture (EA) for relief of labour pain, 36 pregnant women were randomly divided into an EA group and a control group. Two rounds of EA were carried out, one at the beginning of the active phase of labour and one at 7-8cm of cervical dilatation. Hegu L.I.-4 and Sanyinjiao SP-6 were stimulated bilaterally for 20 minutes at a frequency of 2-100 Hz ...

ACUPUNCTURE FACILITATES NATURAL BIRTH

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

Acupuncture significantly reduces duration of labour and reduces the need for augmentation of labour with contraction-stimulating drugs. A study randomised 100 women with spontaneous rupture of membranes at term to either acupuncture or no acupuncture. Treatment was individualised on the basis of traditional Chinese medical diagnosis and used three points per patient from a pool of nine possible c ...

MOXIBUSTION AT ZHIYIN BL-67

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

An Italian obstetrician has carried out a study into the application of moxibustion at Zhiyin BL-67 for the treatment of breech presentation in pregnancy. Francesco Cardini and Huang Weixin divided 130 women (in the 33rd week of their first pregnancy) in two Chinese hospitals into two groups. Those treated with moxibustion (for 7 consecutive daily treatments with seven more if needed) experienced ...

ACUPUNCTURE AND CHILDBIRTH

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

In a study carried out in Sweden, the analgesic effect of acupuncture during childbirth was assessed by comparing the need for other pain treatments such as epidural analgesia, nitrous oxide/oxygen etc. in 90 women given acupuncture (acupuncture group) compared with 90 women not given acupuncture (control group). 52 women (58%) in the acupuncture group and 13 (14%) in the control group managed the ...

ACUPUNCTURE IN CHILDBIRTH

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study carried out at The Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Vienna has shown that prenatal acupuncture can reduce the duration of the first stage of labour (196 minutes versus 321 minutes in a control group), but not the second stage of labour, can significantly reduce use of oxytocin in both the first and second stages, and significantly raise serum levels of prosta ...

ACUPUNCTURE & LABOUR

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A German study has compared the morphologic features and duration of labour in 878 women with at least 36 weeks of uncomplicated pregnancy after receiving a) active acupuncture (329 primiparas), b) nonspecific acupuncture (224 women), or c) no acupuncture treatment (325 primiparas). Women who received specific acupuncture experienced significantly shorter labour times (470 +/-190 minutes) compared ...

ACUPUNCTURE & MORNING SICKNESS

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study of 593 women at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, Australia, who were less than 14 weeks pregnant and suffered from symptoms of nausea or vomiting, compared traditional acupuncture, simple acupuncture at Neiguan P-6 only, sham acupuncture and no acupuncture. The acupuncture patients received two 20-minute sessions of acupuncture in the first week followed by one weekly treatme ...

ACUPUNCTURE DURING LABOUR

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study was conducted to see if acupuncture can influence cervical ripening, induce labour and reduce the need for induction. 45 women were randomly assigned to an acupuncture or a control group on their due date. In the acupuncture group, women were needled at Hegu L.I.-4 and Sanyinjiao SP-6 bilaterally every other day, until they either gave birth or, if the due date was exceeded by 10 days, wer ...

ACUPUNCTURE EFFECTIVE FOR LABOUR PAIN

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study carried out at Orebro University Hospital in Sweden has found that women who received acupuncture during labour were less likely to ask for an epidural to relieve pain (12% compared to 22%) and felt more relaxed than women who did not receive acupuncture. 46 women were randomised to receive acupuncture during labour, and reported at least once an hour how much pain they were experiencing a ...

ACUPUNCTURE & MORNING SICKNESS

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study of 593 women at the Women's and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, Australia, who were less than 14 weeks pregnant and suffered from symptoms of nausea or vomiting, compared traditional acupuncture, simple acupuncture at Neiguan P-6 only, sham acupuncture and no acupuncture. The acupuncture patients received two 20-minute sessions of acupuncture in the first week followed by one weekly treatme ...

ACUPUNCTURE AND LABOUR PAIN

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

Obstetricians from Norway have said that acupuncture is the analgesic method of choice for reducing labour pain, whether supplemented by pharmacological pain-killers or not. 210 mothers in spontaneous labour were randomly assigned to receive either real acupuncture or false acupuncture. The results were tested by assessing their request for pharmacological pain-relief, and on their perception of p ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR LABOUR PAIN

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A randomised, unblinded, controlled study carried out at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo, Norway, has indicated that acupuncture is effective in controlling labour pain. Of the 106 women in labour who received acupuncture, only 11% required Meperidine analgesia, compared to 37% and 29% in two control groups. The use of other analgesics was also lower ...

ACUPUNCTURE EFFECTIVE FOR BREECH CORRECTION

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A systematic review from Holland has concluded that acupuncture-type interventions (moxibustion, acupuncture, or electro-acupuncture) on Zhiyin BL 67 are effective in correcting breech presentation, compared with expectant management. Of 65 citations retrieved from various databases, six RCTs and three cohort studies fulfilled the reviewer's inclusion criteria. In the RCTs the pooled proportion of ...

ACUPUNCTURE & BREECH PRESENTATION

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A study carried out in Croatia compared the outcome of 34 pregnant women with breech presentation treated by manual needling of Zhiyin BL-67 (with deqi), and 33 similar women not treated by acupuncture as a control. Acupuncture was given from 34 weeks, each session lasting 30 minutes, 2 sessions a week. The rate of successful conversion to vertex presentation (verified by ultrasonography) was 76.4 ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN IN PREGNANCY

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

A Brazilian study which compared the levels of low back and pelvic pain in women treated by acupuncture compared to non-treated controls, found that the acupuncture group showed a greater reduction in overall pain, maximum pain and pain at the time of interview, reduced use of analgesics, and greater capacity to perform general activities, to walk and to work. (Acupuncture in Medicine, 2004 ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR BREECH PRESENTATION

Categories: Pregnancy & labour

An Italian study into breech presentation compared 112 randomly selected women who were given acupuncture and moxibustion at Zhiyin BL-67, with 114 women who were simply observed. All were at 33-35 weeks of gestation. The proportion of caesarean sections required in the acupuncture treatment group was significantly lower than in the control group (52.3% versus 66.7%). (Journal of Maternal-Fetal an ...