Trial reportPloS one2016
The Effectiveness of Individualized Acupuncture Protocols in the Treatment of Gulf War Illness: A Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial.
Trial report in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01305811 (Acupuncture in the Treatment of Gulf War Illness), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 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.
Acupuncture in the Treatment of Gulf War Illness
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine for cancer pain: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Matrix Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine Differential Diagnoses in Gulf War Illness.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2019Trial
- A Detoxification Intervention for Gulf War Illness: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Trial
- A Survey of Acupuncture Chinese Herbal Medicine Students to Identify Barriers to Teaching and Motivations to Study Acupuncture Research.Medical acupuncture · 2025Article
- Study protocol for a revised randomized trial: Remotely delivered Tai Chi and wellness for Gulf War illness.Contemporary clinical trials · 2023Article
- Advances in Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Chinese Medicine.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2021Review
- Gulf War Illness: Mechanisms Underlying Brain Dysfunction and Promising Therapeutic Strategies.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2021Review
- Sex-Based Differences in Plasma Autoantibodies to Central Nervous System Proteins in Gulf War Veterans versus Healthy and Symptomatic Controls.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Designing Trials with Purpose: Pragmatic Clinical Trials of Nonpharmacological Approaches for Pain Management.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2020Article
- Grappling with Gulf War Illness: Perspectives of Gulf War Providers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Using Plasma Autoantibodies of Central Nervous System Proteins to Distinguish Veterans with Gulf War Illness from Healthy and Symptomatic Controls.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Transcranial Photobiomodulation to Improve Cognition in Gulf War Illness.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Article
- Progression of intervention-focused research for Gulf War illness.Military Medical Research · 2019Review
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 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGulf War Illness is a Complex Medical Illness characterized by multiple symptoms, including fatigue, sleep and mood disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and musculoskeletal pain affecting veterans of the first Gulf War. No standard of care treatment exists.
methodsThis pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial tested the effects of individualized acupuncture treatments offered in extant acupuncture practices in the community; practitioners had at least 5 years of experience plus additional training provided by the study. Veterans with diagnosed symptoms of Gulf War Illness were randomized to either six months of biweekly acupuncture treatments (group 1, n = 52) or 2 months of waitlist followed by weekly acupuncture treatments (group 2, n = 52). Measurements were taken at baseline, 2, 4 and 6 months. The primary outcome is the SF-36 physical component scale score (SF-36P) and the secondary outcome is the McGill Pain scale.
resultsOf the 104 subjects who underwent randomization, 85 completed the protocol (82%). A clinically and statistically significant average improvement of 9.4 points (p = 0.03) in the SF-36P was observed for group 1 at month 6 compared to group 2, adjusting for baseline pain. The secondary outcome of McGill pain index produced similar results; at 6 months, group 1 was estimated to experience a reduction of approximately 3.6 points (p = 0.04) compared to group 2.
conclusionsIndividualized acupuncture treatment of sufficient dose appears to offer significant relief of physical disability and pain for veterans with Gulf War Illness. This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Gulf War Illness Research Program under Award No. W81XWH-09-2-0064. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01305811.
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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.