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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 IN PRISON

Categories: Substance abuse

A Swedish study has investigated the possible benefits of giving ear acupuncture to male and female substance abusers in prison. Prisoners were offered a treatment programme comprising 14 treatments over a 4-week period. 145 prisoners received treatment at either five points selected according to the NADA-Acudetox protocol or a “non-specific control treatment” with 75% of participants ...

ACUPUNCTURE & SMOKING

Categories: Substance abuse

Research has shown that acupuncture can offer significant benefits to public health programmes to help people stop smoking. 141 smokers were assigned to receive either i. true acupuncture and anti-smoking education, ii. sham acupuncture (needles inserted near but not at traditional points) and education, or iii. education alone. All received five treatments a week for four weeks and five weeks of ...

ACUPUNCTURE AIDS OPIATE DETOXIFICATION

Categories: Substance abuse

Rapid Opiate Detoxification (ROD) is considered to be one of the most effective treatments for substance abuse but is associated with severe withdrawal symptoms. In a study to determine if acupuncture could reduce these symptoms, 40 adult males addicted to opioids and scheduled for ROD by naloxone were randomly divided into acupuncture and control groups. In the acupuncture group body acupuncture ...

CHINESE HERB CUTS ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Categories: Substance abuse

The Chinese herb Ge Gen (Puerariae Radix) appears to be able to reduce alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers. Those who were given the herb extract in capsule form for seven days prior to a drinking session cut their alcohol consumption by almost 50% compared to controls given a placebo. Not only did they consume fewer beers, but they took more and fewer sips and therefore consumed the beer more s ...

ACUPUNCTURE HELPS ADDICTS

Categories: Substance abuse

Acupuncture has been found to reduce drug use and withdrawal symptoms in a study carried out in Vancouver, Canada. 2,755 treatments were given on a voluntary drop-in basis at two clinics in the city. Patients who presented for treatment every ten days to two weeks demonstrated a significant reduction in drug use and a reduction in withdrawal symptoms including shakes, stomach cramps, hallucination ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE ANXIETY

Categories: Substance abuse

An exploratory study evaluated the benefits of adding auricular acupuncture to a 21-day outpatient structured psychoeducational treatment programme for women with concurrent substance use problems, anxiety and depression. Women receiving acupuncture (n=185) reported having reduced physiological cravings for substances, felt significantly less depressed and anxious, and were better able to reflect ...

AURICULAR ACUPUNCTURE VERSUS AROMATHERAPY FOR ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL

Categories: Substance abuse

A randomised-controlled trial has compared auricular acupuncture with aromatherapy in reducing the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and found them to be equally effective. The study, carried out in a German clinic, randomly assigned 109 inpatients undergoing alcohol withdrawal to acupuncture or aromatherapy. Participants underwent both therapies daily during the first five consecutive treatment days ...

Auricular acupuncture for smoking cessation

Categories: Substance abuse

A prospective, randomised, controlled trial has compared auricular acupuncture for smoking cessation against sham in a group of 131 Taiwanese adults. The treatment group received auricular acupuncture at Shenmen, Sympathetic, Mouth and Lung points for eight weeks. The control group received sham acupuncture at non-smoking-cessation-related auricular points (Knee, Elbow, Shoulder and Eye). The subj ...

ACUPUNCTURE HELPS OPIATE WITHDRAWAL

Categories: Substance abuse

A meta-analysis of acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment for opiate detoxification has been carried out by Chinese authors. They searched English and Chinese databases for randomised trials comparing acupuncture combined with opioid agonist treatment versus opioid agonists alone for treating symptoms of opiate withdrawal. Combined treatment was found to lower withdrawal-symptom scores, reported r ...

KUDZU CAUSES AVERSION TO ALCOHOL

Categories: Substance abuse

A synthetic derivative of the kudzu vine [Ge Gen (Puerariae Radix)] has been shown to reduce drinking and prevent relapse in a rat model of alcoholism. Kudzu contains daidzin, a substance which causes aversion to drinking alcohol. Daidzin inhibits the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH-2), which metabolises alcohol into acetaldehyde. Decreased drinking due to ALDH-2 inhibition is attributed to ...

ACUPUNCTURE & STROKE

Categories: Stroke

The aim of this study carried out at the Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital in Norway was to investigate whether acupuncture treatment, if given to stroke patients in the subacute phase (within 40 days of the stroke) in addition to rehabilitation would influence motor function, activity of daily living (ADL) and quality of life. 45 patients (median age 57 years) were randomised into a control group a ...

ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE & STROKE

Categories: Stroke

A Taiwanese study compared rehabilitation therapy plus non-needling electro stimulation of acupuncture points with rehabilitation therapy alone in the treatment of post-CVA hemiplegia. Electro-acupuncture was given 5 times per week. Patients who received electro-acupuncture had shorter hospital stays and better neurological and functional outcomes. The authors report that this study contrasts with ...

ACUPUNCTURE & STROKE

Categories: Stroke

A Hong Kong study has cast doubt on the benefits of acupuncture for stroke recovery. All 106 patients in the study (3-15 days after stroke) received standard stroke care (physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy and medical and nursing care) whilst a randomised subgroup also received Chinese manual acupuncture (35 treatment sessions using manual acupuncture on 10 main acupoints over 10 ...

ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE REDUCES POST-STROKE SPASTICITY

Categories: Stroke

A combination of electro-acupuncture and muscle strengthening exercises can significantly reduce the spasticity of the wrist joint in stroke survivors. In a crossover trial, seven chronic stroke subjects (average age 63) received two six-week treatment regimens: combined electro-acupuncture and strengthening twice a week, and strengthening twice a week only. Wrist spasticity was reduced significan ...

ELECTROACUPUNCTURE FOR STROKE

Categories: Stroke

The effects of electroacupuncture for patients with ischaemic stroke have been examined in a randomised controlled study. Sixty-three patients with first-ever ischaemic stroke were divided into study and control groups. Both groups underwent a conventional rehabilitation program and the study group received an additional eight sessions of electroacupuncture over a period of one month. Motor perfor ...

LOW FREQUENCY ELECTROACUPUNCTURE BETTER FOR STROKE RECOVERY

Categories: Stroke

A Korean study suggests that low frequency electroacupuncture (EA) may be more helpful for motor recovery after stroke than high frequency EA. Sixty-two patients with motor dysfunction, hospitalised one week to one month from onset of ischaemic stroke, were treated with 2Hz or 120Hz EA over a two week period. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs, measurements of electrical potential recorded in muscles f ...

Electroacupuncture for motor recovery in chronic stroke

Categories: Stroke

A US pilot study has compared improvement in upper-limb motor function in chronic stroke survivors who received a combination of acupuncture and strength training, with that of subjects who received strength training alone. Ten chronic stroke patients with moderate or severe wrist muscle spasticity were recruited for the study, which used a crossover design with a random order of either combined e ...

ACUPUNCTURE IMPROVES BALANCE IN STROKE PATIENTS

Categories: Stroke

Investigators in Taiwan have found that acupuncture has an immediate effect on improving balance in stroke patients. In a single-blinded, randomised, controlled study, 30 stroke patients were allocated to experimental and control groups. All participants had needles inserted at Baihui DU-20 and at four surrounding points (1.5 cun anterior, posterior and lateral to Baihui DU-20) for 20 minutes. In ...

CHINESE HERBS AND ECZEMA

Categories: Skin / dermatology

A study has followed up a group of 31 patients with severe atopic eczema who initially took part in a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trial of a specific formulation of Chinese herbal therapy. All were offered continued therapy for one year after the trial was completed. Of 17 patients who took up the offer, 12 had a greater than 90% reduction of symptoms and the other 5 had a greater th ...

CHINESE HERBS AND HERPES SIMPLEX

Categories: Skin / dermatology

The combination of various Chinese herbs with proven antiherpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) action combined with acyclovir has been found to have a stronger anti-HSV-1 action than either the herbs or acyclovir alone. They reduced virus yields in the brain and skin more strongly than acyclovir alone, and exhibited stronger anti-HSV-1 activity in the brain than in the skin, in contrast to acyclovir ...