What’s the Evidence for Acupuncture?
Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, increasing at twice the rate of research into conventional biomedicine. There are now 15,000+ acupuncture controlled clinical trials listed in the Cochrane database of clinical trials (as of 2022).
Let’s have a little look at some of the evidence.
In 2017, two Acupuncturist’s and researchers were commission to conduct a review into the current state of Acupuncture evidence. The project was called “The Acupuncture Evidence Project”. The focus was on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The Australian Department of Veterans Affairs 2010 Alternative Therapies Review and United States Department of Veterans Affairs Acupuncture Evidence Map 2014 were used as baselines, then evidence levels were updated to reflect subsequent research.
The conclusion of this study found that: Systematic reviews published up to January 2017 indicate that acupuncture has a positive effect on eight conditions (migraine prophylaxis, headache, chronic low back pain, allergic rhinitis, knee osteoarthritis, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, post-operative nausea and vomiting and post-operative pain), potential positive effect on a further 38 conditions, unclear/insufficient evidence for 71 conditions and no evidence of effect for five conditions. Evidence of cost-effectiveness was identified for 10 conditions, and evidence for safety was identified for nine conditions.
Now this comprehensive review was put together in 2017. Since then, a large number of research trials have been conducted with fabulous results.
One of the latest meta-analyses actually came out of Australia in 2019 and looks at the research around IVF acupuncture in detail. They found that the dose of acupuncture, (ie how many acupuncture sessions), had a significant effect on pregnancy outcomes, finding more than three acupuncture treatments showed a significant increase in clinical pregnancy rates.
(Smith CA, Armour M, Shewamene Z, Tan HY, Norman RJ, Johnson NP. Acupuncture performed around the time of embryo transfer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Reprod Biomed Online. 2019 Mar;38(3):364-379. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2018.12.038. Epub 2019 Jan 2. PMID: 30658892.)
I could list more but this particular study is important to mention as Fertility Acupuncture as a specialty is increasing and patients often do their own research when undergoing IVF looking for supportive therapies.
If you’d like to read about the mechanisms of Acupuncture from a biomedical perspective, head to Evidence Based Acupuncture.
Their research is pretty amazing and is communicated entirely in scientific terms. They have produced 8 evidence summaries to date. The evidence summaries produced by Evidence Based Acupuncture are fully referenced literature reviews of the most up to date evidence for acupuncture in a variety of clinic areas. They draw on up-to-date systematic reviews and basic science research and include discussions of popular treatments for these same conditions.
The current summaries are for:
Menopause
Pain
Oncology
Allergic Rhinitis
Mental Health
Musculoskeletal
Pediatrics
Safety
If you’d like to know more or have a specific question about acupuncture research, please reach out! I’m more than happy to answer any questions you might have.
