title: Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for dizziness and vertigo in emergency department: a pilot cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dizziness and vertigo account for roughly 4% of chief symptoms in the emergency department (ED). Pharmacological therapy is often applied for these symptoms, such as vestibular suppressants, anti-emetics and benzodiazepines. However, every medication is accompanied with unavoidable side-effects. There are several research articles providing evidence of acupuncture treating dizziness and vertigo but few studies of acupuncture as an emergent intervention in ED. We performed a pilot cohort study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating patients with dizziness and vertigo in ED.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 60 participants, recruited in ED, were divided into acupuncture and control group. Life-threatening conditions or central nervous system disorders were excluded to ensure participants' safety. The clinical effect of treating dizziness and vertigo was evaluated by performing statistical analyses on data collected from questionnaires of Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of dizziness and vertigo, and heart rate variability (HRV).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The variation of VAS demonstrated a significant decrease (p-value: 0.001 and p-value: 0.037) between two groups after two different durations: 30 mins and 7 days. The variation of DHI showed no significant difference after 7 days. HRV revealed a significant increase in high frequency (HF) in the acupuncture group. No adverse event was reported in this study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acupuncture demonstrates a significant immediate effect in reducing discomforts and VAS of both dizziness and vertigo. This study provides clinical evidence on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture to treat dizziness and vertigo in the emergency department.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02358239 . Registered 5 February 2015.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsung-Chieh
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Po-Chi
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Yun
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shun-Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: John Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese medicine, Changhua Christian hospital, Changhua, Taiwan. 126478@cch.org.tw.|Graduate Institute of Statistical and informational Science, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan. 126478@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Lun-Chien
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004244:Dizziness / Q000628:therapy*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014717:Vertigo / Q000628:therapy*; D055815:Young Adult