tailieunhanh - Bronchial Asthma and Acupuncture

The Evidence Series of Briefing Papers aims to provide a review of the key papers in the literature, which provide evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of specific conditions. The sources of evidence will be clearly identified ranging from clinical trials, outcome studies and case studies. | BRIEFING PAPER No 8 Bronchial Asthma and Acupuncture The evidence for effectiveness British Acupuncture Council Edited and produced by the Acupuncture Research Resource Centre Published by the British Acupuncture Council February 2002 The Evidence Series of Briefing Papers aims to provide a review of the key papers in the literature which provide evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of specific conditions. The sources of evidence will be clearly identified ranging from clinical trials outcome studies and case studies. In particular this series of briefing papers will seek to present discuss and critically evaluate the evidence. BRONCHIAL ASTHMA AND ACUPUNCTURE THE EVIDENCE FOR EFFECTIVENESS Summary This paper reviews a number of clinical trials and outcome studies on the use of acupuncture to treat asthma. None of the trials had a large sample size and they suffer from the problems common to all acupuncture trials such as what constitutes appropriate treatment and a suitable control . The outcome studies avoid some of these problems but many lack rigour or adequate description of measurements used. This paper reviews the trials that appeared most sound in methodological terms together with those outcome studies that had relatively large samples. The trials are divided into two groups those treating patients as part of normal clinical management and those treating patients suffering an induced asthma attack. The findings for the first group are inconsistent particularly as regards objective measures of lung function. There is however evidence that acupuncture can improve patients subjective experience of their symptoms reduce their use of medication and improve immunological parameters. The smaller number of trials of induced asthma is more consistently positive. The majority of trials provide an inadequate rationale for the acupuncture points used and few bear any relationship to the way acupuncture is actually practised by British .