title: Abdominal acupuncture for insomnia in women: a randomized controlled clinical trial.
abstract: A randomized single-blind trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of short-term abdominal acupuncture as a novel treatment for insomnia in Chinese women. Forty-four patients between the ages of 22 and 56 were randomly assigned to an acupuncture (n = 23) and a medication group (n = 21). The acupuncture group received abdominal acupuncture once a day for the first three days and once every three days for the remaining 11 days. In addition, every subject in acupuncture group also received a placebo pill once daily. Abdominal acupuncture was administered according to a standardized protocol involving four master and four adjunctive acupoints: Zhongwan (CV 12), Xiawan (CV 10), Guanyuan (CV 4), and Qihai (CV 6); bilateral Shangqu (KI 17), Huaroumen (ST 24), Xiafengshidian, and Qipang. Subjects in the medication group were treated with sham acupuncture at the same time as the acupuncture group and received estazolam once a day. The outcome measure was the Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire (LSEQ), administered before and after the trial. Subjects who received abdominal acupuncture lowered their LSEQ scores by an average of 26.32 points (95% CI: 37.34, 15.30). After controlling for potential confounding factors, the effect of abdominal acupuncture in relieving insomnia was still statistically significant. Results indicate that short-term abdominal acupuncture is more effective than pharmacological treatment for relieving insomnia in adult women and has few adverse effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510000, PR China. zp@gdivdc.com
authors.forename: Xiao-Yun
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Song-Hun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Hong-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yan-Mei
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Fang-Ping
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Chun-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xu-Chun
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires