Acupuncture therapy is an effective treatment for improving health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Researchers from different universities in Taiwan comprehensively analyzed the effects of body acupuncture therapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Their findings were published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice.

• COPD is highly prevalent around the world and leads to poor health-related quality of life (HRQL) and exercise capacity.
• Even under medications, many patients still have poor HRQL.
• On the other hand, BAT is a non-invasive and popular therapy for relieving the symptoms of diseases, especially those that cause pain.
• For their study, the researchers searched eight electronic databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effects of BAT, medication (M) and pulmonary rehabilitation (PR).
• They considered HRQL as the primary outcome, which was evaluated using St. George’s respiratory questionnaire (SGRQ) or COPD assessment test (CAT).
• The researchers found 12 studies involving a total of 798 participants that met their criteria.
• Analysis of the data presented in those studies indicated a significant improvement that favored the combination of BAT and M over M alone in terms of CAT scores.

Based on the results of their evaluation, the researchers concluded that BAT is an effective adjunct treatment that improves HRQL in COPD patients who are under medical treatment.

Read the full study at this link.

Journal Reference:

Hsieh PC, Yang MC, Wu YK, Chen HY, Tzeng IS, Hsu PS, Lee CT, Chen CL, Lan CC. ACUPUNCTURE THERAPY IMPROVES HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. 2019;35:208–218. DOI: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2019.02.016