Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for idiopathic Parkinson's disease: a systematic review.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy (monotherapy or adjuvant therapy), compared with placebo, conventional interventions, or no treatment in treating patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD).


METHODS
International electronic database: (1) The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, (2) Academic Search Premier, (3) ACP Medicine, Alternative Medicine, (4) CINAHL, (5) EBM Reviews, (6) EMBASE, (7) MEDLINE, (8) OLD MEDLINE, (9) ProQuest Medical Library. Chinese electronic databases searched included: (1) VIP, (2) CJN, (3) CBM disk, (4) China Medical Academic Conference. Hand searching was conducted on all appropriate journals. Reference lists of relevant trials and reviews were also searched to identify additional studies.


METHODS
All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of any duration comparing monotherapy and adjuvant acupuncture therapy with placebo or no intervention were included.


METHODS
Data were abstracted independently by Y. C. Lam and S. C. Man onto standardized forms, and disagreements were resolved by discussion.


RESULTS
Ten (10) trials were included, each using a different set of acupoints and manipulation of needles. None of them reported the concealment of allocation. Only two mentioned the number of dropouts. Two (2) used a nonblind method while others did not mention their blinding methods. Nine (9) studies claimed a statistically significant positive effect from acupuncture as compared with their control; only one indicated that there were no statistically significant differences for all variables measured. Only 2 studies described details about adverse events.


CONCLUSIONS
There is evidence indicating the potential effectiveness of acupuncture for treating IPD. The results were limited by the methodological flaws, unknowns in concealment of allocation, number of dropouts, and blinding methods in the studies. Large, well-designed, placebo-controlled RCTs with rigorous methods of randomization and adequately concealed allocation, as well as intention-to-treat data analysis are needed.
Lam
Yuen Chi
YC
School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
Kum
Wan Fung
WF
Durairajan
Siva Sundara Kumar
SS
Lu
Jia Hong
JH
Man
Sui Cheung
SC
Xu
Min
M
Zhang
Xiao Fei
XF
Huang
Xian Zhang
XZ
Li
Min
M
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome