A recent study of more than 300 chronic spontaneous attack urticaria (CSU) patients found that acupuncture may provide limited symptom relief, but the clinical significance remains unclear. . An accompanying editorial highlights the potential of acupuncture in the treatment of non-painful conditions and the need for widespread clinical openness to its use.
A randomized controlled study of more than 300 participants diagnosed with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), or hives, suggests that acupuncture may provide some symptom relief. However, the clinical significance of these results remains unclear. This study was recently published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
CSU is the most common form of chronic urticaria and is characterized by recurrent itching, skin lesions, or swelling that lasts for more than 6 weeks in the absence of a specific provoking factor. More than 90 percent of CSU patients require urgent treatment to relieve itching. Therefore, itch management is one of the main goals in the treatment of CSU.
Effect of acupuncture on CSU
Researchers at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine randomly assigned 330 people diagnosed with CSU to either 4 weeks of acupuncture, 4 weeks of sham acupuncture, or a waiting list (control), and 4 weeks after treatment. Patients were followed for weeks to see if the acupuncture treatment improved. It leads to the improvement of CSU symptoms. Symptom changes were measured using the Weekly Urticaria Activity Score (UAS7).
Patients in the acupuncture group reported improved UAS7 compared to sham acupuncture and waitlist management. However, the clinical significance of the observed reduction in itch severity scores is unclear, as the difference between intervention and control did not meet the minimum clinical difference (MCID) threshold. The incidence of adverse events was highest in the acupuncture group, but the adverse events were mild and transient.
Editorial insights and broader implications
An accompanying editorial by Mike Cummings of the British Medical Acupuncture Society highlights that these trial results are interesting because they illustrate the effectiveness of acupuncture in conditions not characterized by pain.
Although the clinical significance of this finding was not clear, the authors believe that clinicians may use acupuncture as an adjunct to influence outcomes, even in more severe disease states. This suggests that you should always keep this in mind. The editorial suggests that acupuncture is often ignored as a treatment because it lacks commercial support compared to other modern interventions.
Reference: “Efficacy of acupuncture treatment for chronic spontaneous urticaria” Hui Zheng, Xian-Jun Xiao, Yun-Zhou Shi, Lei-Xiao Zhang, Wei Cao, Qian-Hua Zheng, Feng Zhong, Ping-Sheng Hao, Ying Written by Huang, Ming – Ling Chen, Wei Zhang, Si-Yuan Zhou, Yan-Jun Wang, Chuan Wang, Li Zhou, Xiao-Qin Chen, Zuo-Qin Yang, Zi-Hao Zou, Ling Zhao, Fan-Rong Liang, Ying Li, 14 November 2023 Annual report of internal medicine.
DOI: 10.7326/M23-1043
“Acupuncture for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria” by Mike Cummings, November 14, 2023, Annual report of internal medicine.
DOI: 10.7326/M23-2713
Source: scitechdaily.com
