Acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicine therapies in the treatment of children’s tic syndrome: A network meta-analysis
Pu T, Liu Y, Wang J, Zhang J, Zhang J, Ran Z, Sheng Q, Yi Z, Ye J, Li Y, Wang X, Chi H, Luo W · Frontiers in Neuroscience · 2023 April 17
DOI 10.3389/fnins.2023.1156308
Objective
To investigate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture-based interventions compared with Western medicine for treating tic disorders in children through a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Conclusions
Acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medical herbs may be the best therapy for improving tic disorders in children, while acupuncture alone and acupuncture combined with tuina may be more effective than commonly used Western medicine.
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Insights
Combining acupuncture with traditional Chinese herbal medicine appears to improve childhood tic symptoms more effectively than conventional Western medicine.
This review combined randomized controlled trials involving children with tic disorders that compared acupuncture alone, acupuncture plus traditional Chinese herbal medicine, or acupuncture plus therapeutic massage with Western medicine. The researchers assessed tic severity, traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores, overall clinical improvement, and adverse events, while evaluating study quality using a standardized risk-of-bias framework.
Across the included studies, acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese herbal medicine showed the strongest overall improvement in tic symptoms and clinical response. Acupuncture alone and acupuncture combined with therapeutic massage also appeared to improve childhood tic disorders more effectively than commonly used Western medicines.
