Acupuncture compared with placebo acupuncture in radiotherapy-induced nausea-a randomized controlled study

作者：Enblom A^*; Johnsson A; Hammar M; Onelov E; Steineck G; Borjeson S

来源：Annals of Oncology, 2012, 23(5): 1353-1361.

DOI：10.1093/annonc/mdr402

• acupuncture therapy
• cancer
• complementary medicine
• emesis
• radiotherapy

It is not known if verum (real) acupuncture is effective for nausea and vomiting (emesis) during radiotherapy. %26lt;br%26gt;We randomly treated 215 blinded cancer patients with verum: penetrating %26apos;deqi%26apos; creating acupuncture (n = 109) or non-penetrating sham needles (n = 106) two to three times per week. The patients documented emesis daily during the radiotherapy period. Primary end point was the number of patients with at least one episode of nausea. %26lt;br%26gt;In the verum and the sham acupuncture group, 70% and 62% experienced nausea at least once during the radiotherapy period (relative risk 1.1, 95% CI 0.9-1.4) for a mean number of 10.1 and 8.7 days. Twenty five percent and 28% vomited, and 42% and 37% used antiemetic drugs at least once, respectively. Ninety-five percent in the verum acupuncture group and 96% in the sham acupuncture group believed that the treatment had been effective against nausea. In both groups, 67% experienced positive effects on relaxation, mood, sleep or pain reduction and 89% wished to receive the treatment again. %26lt;br%26gt;Acupuncture creating deqi is not more effective than sham in radiotherapy-induced nausea, but in this study, nearly all patients in both groups experienced that the treatment was effective for nausea.

• 出版日期2012-5