Acupuncture and bronchial asthma.
Seventeen patients with stable bronchial asthma were randomly assigned to receive either correct acupuncture or placebo acupuncture. The study lasted 11 weeks and consisted of a pre-therapy, therapy, and post-therapy period. The patients received 10 treatments during a 5-week period. The effect of therapy on pulmonary function was assessed daily by the patients at home. Morning and evening peak expiratory flow rate, number of puffs beta 2-agonist aerosol needed, as well as subjective symptoms of asthma were recorded in a diary. The correctly treated group improved significantly throughout the study. Also, compared with the placebo group, a significant improvement was found in all assessed parameters 2 weeks after beginning therapy. Hereafter, no differences could be shown.
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D010366:Peak Expiratory Flow Rate; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors