ReviewEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2014
Acupuncture for refractory epilepsy: role of thalamus.
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 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identifying robust neural signatures of acupuncture modulation in healthy brains: a multimodal meta-analysis mapping core network.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Effect on Satisfactory Seizure Control and Heart Rate Variability of Thread-Embedding Acupuncture for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: A Patient-Assessor Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial.Behavioural neurology · 2023Trial
- Electroacupuncture Mitigates TRPV1 Overexpression in the Central Nervous System Associated with Fibromyalgia in Mice.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Use of Integrative, Complementary, and Alternative Medicine in Children with Epilepsy: A Global Scoping Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Altered Functional Activity and Functional Connectivity of Seed Regions Based on ALFF Following Acupuncture Treatment in Patients with Stroke Sequelae with Unilateral Limb Numbness.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Article
- Acupuncture as an Adjunctive Treatment for Post-stroke Epilepsy: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2021Article
- A protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture for drug resistant epilepsy.Medicine · 2020Article
- Analgesic Effects of Compression at Trigger Points Are Associated With Reduction of Frontal Polar Cortical Activity as Well as Functional Connectivity Between the Frontal Polar Area and Insula in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Trial.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neurostimulation procedures like vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation have been used to treat refractory epilepsy and other neurological disorders. While holding promise, they are invasive interventions with serious complications and adverse effects. Moreover, their efficacies are modest with less seizure free. Acupuncture is a simple, safe, and effective traditional healing modality for a wide range of diseases including pain and epilepsy. Thalamus takes critical role in sensory transmission and is highly involved in epilepsy genesis particularly the absence epilepsy. Considering thalamus serves as a convergent structure for both acupuncture and VNS and the thalamic neuronal activities can be modulated by acupuncture, we propose that acupuncture could be a promising therapy or at least a screening tool to select suitable candidates for those invasive modalities in the management of refractory epilepsy.
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.