ReviewEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2014
Acupuncture for essential hypertension: a meta-analysis of randomized sham-controlled clinical trials.
Review in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acupuncture against the metabolic risk factors for stroke: A systematic review of systematic reviews.Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Acupuncture for hypertension.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for Essential Hypertension: A Meta-Analysis.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Acupuncture for patients with mild hypertension: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2019Trial
- Laser acupuncture protocol for essential systemic arterial hypertension: randomized clinical trial.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2018Trial
- Acupuncture for Essential Hypertension and Endothelial Dysfunction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2025Article
- Review
- Clinical study of acupuncture combined with surface anesthesia using proparacaine in geriatric cataract phacoemulsification.World journal of clinical cases · 2023Article
- Efficacy of acupuncture for hypertension in the elderly: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
- Efficacy of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Essential Hypertension: An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.Cardiovascular therapeutics · 2023Review
- Effects of telemedicine interventions on essential hypertension: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Acupuncture in Arterial Hypertension: Evaluation of its Efficacy with Both Office and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Measurements.High blood pressure & cardiovascular prevention : the official journal of the Italian Society of Hypertension · 2022Article
- Interventions in hypertension: systematic review and meta-analysis of natural and quasi-experiments.Clinical hypertension · 2022Article
- The application of acupuncture in cardiopathy: A bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science across ten recent years.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Review
- Non-pharmacological management of hypertension.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2021Review
- Effects of Acupuncture on Lowering Blood Pressure in Postmenopausal Women with Prehypertension or Stage 1 Hypertension: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Determinants of concurrent use of Biomedicine and Korean Medicine on the hypertension patients: a cross-sectional study.Integrative medicine research · 2021Article
- Wanted: long term studies on massage therapy in hypertension.Journal of human hypertension · 2020Article
- Electroacupuncture Improves Blood Pressure in SHRs by Regulating the Immune Balance between Th17 and Treg.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background. Acupuncture is frequently advocated as an adjunct treatment for essential hypertension. The aim of this review was to assess its adjunct effectiveness in treating hypertension. Methods. We searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and the Chinese databases Sino-Med, CNKI, WanFang, and VIP through November, 2012, for eligible randomized controlled trials that compared acupuncture with sham acupuncture. Outcome measures were changes in diastolic (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). Results. A total of 4 randomized controlled trials were included. We found no evidence of an improvement with the fact that acupuncture relative to sham acupuncture in SBP change (n = 386; mean difference = -3.80 mmHg, 95% CI = -10.03-2.44 mmHg; I (2) = 99%), and an insignificant improvement in DBP change (n = 386; mean difference = -2.82 mmHg, 95% CI = -5.22-(-0.43) mmHg; I (2) = 97%). In subgroup analyses, acupuncture significantly improved both SBP and DBP in patients taking antihypertensive medications. Only minor acupuncture-related adverse events were reported. Conclusions. Our results are consistent with acupuncture significantly lowers blood pressure in patients taking antihypertensive medications. We did not find that acupuncture without antihypertensive medications significantly improves blood pressure in those hypertensive patients.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.