Acupuncture for Alcohol Use Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.
Empirical research has produced mixed results regarding the effects of acupuncture on the treatment of alcohol use disorder in humans. Few studies have provided a comprehensive review or a systematic overview of the magnitude of the treatment effect of acupuncture on alcoholism. This study investigated the effects of acupuncture on alcohol-related symptoms and behaviors in patients with this disorder. The PubMed database was searched until 23 August 2016, and reference lists from review studies were also reviewed. Seventeen studies were identified for a full-text inspection, and seven (243 patients) of these met our inclusion criteria. The outcomes assessed at the last posttreatment point and any available follow-up data were extracted from each of the studies. Our meta-analysis demonstrated that an acupuncture intervention had a stronger effect on reducing alcohol-related symptoms and behaviors than did the control intervention (g= 0.67). A beneficial but weak effect of acupuncture treatment was also found in the follow-up data (g= 0.29). Although our analysis showed a significant difference between acupuncture and the control intervention in patients with alcohol use disorder, this meta-analysis is limited by the small number of studies included. Thus, a larger cohort study is required to provide a firm conclusion.
Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Catholic University of Daegu, Gyeongsan-si, Republic of Korea.
Na Young
NY
Shin
Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Daegu University, Gyeongsan-si, Republic of Korea.
Young Jin
YJ
Lim
Department of Physiology, College of Oriental Medicine, Daegu Haany University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Chae Ha
0000-0002-4551-1600
CH
Yang
Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Cheongtag
0000-0002-9641-3912
C
Kim