Trial reportAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2017
Acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome: 2-year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 3 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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine external therapies for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of Acupuncture on Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Effects and mechanisms of acupuncture and electroacupuncture for functional dyspepsia: A systematic review.World journal of gastroenterology · 2020Pooled it
- Efficacy of acupuncture in refractory irritable bowel syndrome patients: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers of medicine · 2024Trial
- Electroacupuncture at ST36 Alleviates Visceral Hypersensitivity and Anxiety via ACC-AIC Circuit Modulation in IBS Rats.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Article
- The Autonomic Nervous System in Acupuncture for Gastrointestinal Dysmotility: From Anatomical Insights to Clinical Medicine.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- The Effect of Electroacupuncture Treatment with Different Intensities for Functional Diarrhea: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2022Article
- Efficacy of acupuncture in refractory irritable bowel syndrome: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Management of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea: a review of nonpharmacological and pharmacological interventions.Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology · 2019Review
- Inhibition of electroacupuncture on nociceptive responses of dorsal horn neurons evoked by noxious colorectal distention in an intensity-dependent manner.Journal of pain research · 2019Article
- Review article: an analysis of safety profiles of treatments for diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome.Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics · 2018Review
- Electroacupuncture Inhibits Visceral Nociception via Somatovisceral Interaction at Subnucleus Reticularis Dorsalis Neurons in the Rat Medulla.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2018Article
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 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA recent randomised controlled trial (RCT) of acupuncture as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) demonstrated sustained benefits over a period of 12 months post-randomisation.
aimTo extend the trial follow-up to evaluate the effects of acupuncture at 24 months post-randomisation.
methodsPatients in primary care with ongoing IBS were recruited to a two-arm pragmatic RCT of acupuncture for IBS. Participants were randomised to the offer of up to 10 weekly sessions of acupuncture plus usual care (n=116 patients) or to continue with usual care alone (n=117). The primary outcome was the self-reported IBS symptom severity score (IBS SSS) measured at 24 months post-randomisation. Analysis was by intention-to-treat using an unstructured multivariate linear model incorporating all repeated measures.
resultsThe overall response rate was 61%. The adjusted difference in mean IBS SSS at 24 months was -18.28 (95% CI -40.95 to 4.40) in favour of the acupuncture arm. Differences at earlier time points estimated from the multivariate model were: -27.27 (-47.69 to -6.86) at 3 months; -23.69 (-45.17 to -2.21) at 6 months; -24.09 (-45.59 to -2.59) at 9 months; and -23.06 (-44.52 to -1.59) at 12 months.
conclusionsThere were no statistically significant differences between the acupuncture and usual care groups in IBS SSS at 24 months post-randomisation, and the point estimate for the mean difference was approximately 80% of the size of the statistically significant results seen at 6, 9 and 12 months. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN08827905.
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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.