Acupuncture for chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Zhang Q, Gong J, Dong H, Xu S, Wang W, Huang G · Acupuncture in Medicine · 2019 June 17
DOI 10.1136/acupmed-2017-011582
Objective
To evaluate evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Conclusions
The review indicated that acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture and other interventions.
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Insights
Acupuncture appeared to significantly reduce fatigue severity measured by Chalder's Fatigue Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale compared with other types of control.
Sixteen studies with 1346 subjects were included. Most studies had low methodological quality. Meta-analyses showed a favourable effect of acupuncture on overall response rate compared with sham acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Acupuncture also appeared to significantly reduce fatigue severity measured by Chalder’s Fatigue Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale compared with other types of control.
Our review indicated that acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture and other interventions (Chinese herbal medicine, mainly), but no firm conclusion could be reached owing to limited data, poor quality and potentially exaggerated effect size evaluation. Further large, rigorously designed and reported RCTs are required.
