Acupuncture for chemotherapy-associated insomnia in breast cancer patients: an assessor-participant blinded, randomized, sham-controlled trial
Zhang J, Qin Z, So TH, Chang TY, Yang S, Chen H, Yeung WF, Chung KF, Chan PY, Huang Y, Xu S, Chiang CY, Lao L, Zhang ZJ · Breast Cancer Research · 2023 April 26
DOI 10.1186/s13058-023-01645-0
Objective
To determine the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in improving chemotherapy-associated insomnia in breast cancer patients.
Conclusions
The active acupuncture regimen, combining needling into body acupoints and acupressure on auricular acupoints, was not superior to sham control in reducing the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) score from baseline to 6 weeks. However, it produced short-term treatment and long-term follow-up better outcomes in improving sleep onset latency, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Participants in the active acupuncture group had a higher cessation rate of sleeping medications than the sham control, indicating that acupuncture could be an effective option for managing chemotherapy-associated insomnia and serve as a tapering approach to reduce the use of sleeping medications in breast cancer patients.
Critical Appraisal
Published research can offer valuable insights, but a paper’s conclusions may go beyond what its results support. Critical appraisal examines the methods, findings and limitations to clarify what can reasonably be concluded—and what remains uncertain.
This article has not yet been critically appraised by the Research Hub.
Learn more about Critical Appraisal
Related insights
- High prevalence of insomnia, anxiety, and depression among perimenopausal women, emphasizing the importance of exploring acupuncture as a potential green therapy for effectively addressing these interconnected issues.
- Our results suggest that acupuncture could be effective for treating insomnia after stroke.
- Acupuncture feasibly reduced several treatment-related symptoms among medically underserved breast cancer survivors, offering a practical way to help narrow supportive-care disparities.
- Acupuncture can improve both perimenopausal depression and insomnia with short-medium term effects while being a safe treatment.
- Acupuncture and dry needling may significantly enhance Fibromyalgia symptoms and overall quality of life in short term.
- Acupuncture can be a safe and effective alternative therapy to conventional drugs for improving sleep quality and relieving symptoms in patients with active depression.
- Meta-analysis of TCM non-drug treatments like acupuncture and massage improved primary insomnia, reducing PSQI scores, and easing anxiety and depression.
- Current evidence suggests that acupuncture might improve breast cancer treatment-related symptoms measured with patient-reported outcomes including quality of life, pain, fatigue, hot flashes, sleep disturbance and anxiety.
