title: Effectiveness of acupoint sticking therapy in common chronic diseases, with disease differentiation principle.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the effectiveness of acupoint sticking therapy (AST) in three common chronic diseases including respiratory diseases, digestive system diseases, and chronic pain according to the disease differentiation principle.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 200 eligible patients with respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, or chronic pain were enrolled in this study. AST was applied based on their specific conditions. The treatment effectiveness was compared three months later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall positive response rate was 87.50%, with 54.00% overall rate of significant effectiveness. For the respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, and chronic pain, the overall response rate was 87.69%, 80.00%, and 93.33%, respectively (P>0.05), whereas the rate of significant effectiveness was 46.15%, 43.33%, and 69.33% (P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AST is effective for all these three common chronic diseases, particularly for the chronic pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Guan-Heng
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 58 Zhong Shan road II, Guangzhou 510080, China. ruanjw@163.com.
authors.forename: Jing-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xiang
keywords: Acupoint sticking therapy (AST); chronic pain; digestive diseases; respiratory diseases