The Clinical Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Patients with Insomnia and Functional Gastrointestinal Diseases: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Dixiang Zhong57188, Mei Han57189, Ting Hong57190, Yuanyuan Qi57191, Wendan Xue57192, Mengyun Zhu57193, Zheyou Chu57194, Minrou Xu57195 and Yingchun Miao157196*

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy for patients with insomnia and functional gastrointestinal diseases.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Web of science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, China Science Technology Journal Database, SinoMed Database were searched to identify eligible Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). Screening documents, data extraction, quality assessment of methodology and quality assessment of evidence were also conducted by two authors separately at the same time. The results of meta-analysis were made via Rev Man software (5.3).

Results: We included 9 RCTs (984 participants), meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results of meta-analysis demonstrated about sleep effect, compared with the western medicine group, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score of the acupuncture group was lower than that of the western medicine group (MD-2.60, 95% CI (-4.95,-0.25), I2=96%, n=526, 4 trials). Compared with acupuncture group, the PSQI score of acupuncture combined with Tui Na group was lower than that of acupuncture group (MD-2.49, 95% CI (-2.66,-2.32), I2=14%, n=458, 5 trials). It also discussed about gastrointestinal function, only 1 RCT reported gastrointestinal-related indicators and the results showed that the acupuncture group effect was better than western medicine group in regulating the level of brain-gut peptide.

Conclusion: Acupuncture and acupuncture combined with Tui Na can both improve the sleep quality of patients with insomnia and functional gastrointestinal diseases, and the efficacy of acupuncture combined with Tui Na is better than that of acupuncture alone. However, it is not clear whether it can improve gastrointestinal symptoms. More high-quality clinical trials are needed to provide more powerful and comprehensive evidence in the future.