A recent study of more than 300 patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) found that acupuncture provided limited relief of symptoms, but its clinical significance remains unclear. An accompanying editorial highlights the potential of acupuncture to treat non-painful conditions and the need for wider clinical use of acupuncture.
A randomized controlled study involving more than 300 people with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), or hives, suggests acupuncture may relieve symptoms to some extent. However, the clinical significance of these results remains uncertain. The study was recently published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
CSU is the most common form of chronic urticaria and is characterized by recurring itching, lesions, or swelling that lasts for more than 6 weeks without a specific trigger. More than 90% of CSU patients require emergency treatment to relieve itching, therefore, controlling itching is one of the main goals of CSU treatment.
Researchers from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine randomly assigned 330 CSU patients to receive 4 weeks of acupuncture, 4 weeks of sham acupuncture, or waiting for treatment (control group), and then followed the patients for 4 weeks after treatment to study whether acupuncture could improve symptoms of CSU. Symptom changes were measured using the weekly Urticarial Activity Score (UAS7).
Patients in the acupuncture group reported greater improvements in UAS7 than those in the sham acupuncture or waitlist control groups. However, the difference between the intervention and control groups did not reach the minimal clinical difference (MCID) threshold, so the clinical significance of the observed reduction in itch severity scores is uncertain. The acupuncture group had the highest rate of adverse events, but the events were mild and transient.
Mike Cummings of the British Association of Medical Acupuncture stressed in an accompanying editorial that the trial results are interesting because they describe the efficacy of acupuncture in a condition not characterized by pain.
Although the clinical significance of the study results is unclear, the authors suggest that clinicians should keep an open mind that the adjunctive role of acupuncture may affect the effectiveness of treatment, even in more severe cases. The editorial contends that acupuncture is often overlooked as a therapy because it lacks the commercial support of other modern interventions.
Reference: "Efficacy of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria", November 14, 2023, "Annals of Internal Medicine".
doi:10.7326/m23-1043
"Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria", by Mike Cummings, November 14, 2023, Annals of Internal Medicine.
doi:10.7326/m23-2713
Compiled source: ScitechDaily