ReviewIntegrative medicine research2015
Modern acupuncture-like stimulation methods: a literature review.
Review in Integrative medicine research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 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
- Effectiveness and safety of acupuncture modalities for overweight and obesity treatment: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of RCTs.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The effectiveness of acupuncture point stimulation for the prevention of postoperative sore throat: A meta-analysis.Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation over acupoint for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Clinical efficacy of electroacupuncture-like magnetic therapy compared to conventional transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in individuals with carpal tunnel syndrome.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation improves endometrial receptivity resulting in improved IVF-ET pregnancy outcomes in older women: a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial.Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2022Trial
- Pain Alleviation by Electronic Acupuncture Pen versus Ethyl Chloride Spray during Local Anesthetic Injection Procedures: A Randomized Split-mouth Clinical Trial.International journal of clinical pediatric dentistry · 2026Article
- Activation of α7nAChR reduces inflammation and apoptosis, promoting muscle regeneration through the AKT-FOXO1 pathway.Cell death and differentiation · 2026Article
- Pyramidal and parvalbumin neurons modulate the process of electroacupuncture stimulation for stroke rehabilitation.iScience · 2024Article
- Article
- Numerical Modeling and Simulation of Non-Invasive Acupuncture Therapy Utilizing Near-Infrared Light-Emitting Diode.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Attenuation of immobilization stress-induced hypertension by temperature-controllable warm needle acupuncture in rats and the peripheral neural mechanisms.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Electroencephalogram Analysis of Magnetic Stimulation at Different Acupoints.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Current Aspects Regarding the Clinical Relevance of Electroacupuncture in Dogs with Spinal Cord Injury: A Literature Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Review
- History of Laser Acupuncture: A Narrative Review of Scientific Literature.Medical acupuncture · 2020Review
- The greater inflammatory pathway-high clinical potential by innovative predictive, preventive, and personalized medical approach.The EPMA journal · 2020Review
- Early history of laser acupuncture: who used it first?Integrative medicine research · 2019Article
- Short-Term Efficacy of Pulsed Radiofrequency Thermal Stimulation on Acupoints for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Preliminary Study of a Randomized, Single-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Trial.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 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
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Acupuncture therapy has been proved to be effective for diverse diseases, symptoms, and conditions in numerous clinical trials. The growing popularity of acupuncture therapy has triggered the development of modern acupuncture-like stimulation devices (ASDs), which are equivalent or superior to manual acupuncture with respect to safety, decreased risk of infection, and facilitation of clinical trials. Here, we aim to summarize the research on modern ASDs, with a focus on featured devices undergoing active research and their effectiveness and target symptoms, along with annual publication rates. We searched the popular electronic databases Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science, and analyzed English-language studies on humans. Thereby, a total of 728 studies were identified, of which 195 studies met our inclusion criteria. Electrical stimulators were found to be the earliest and most widely studied devices (133 articles), followed by laser (44 articles), magnetic (16 articles), and ultrasound (2 articles) stimulators. A total of 114 studies used randomized controlled trials, and 109 studies reported therapeutic benefits. The majority of the studies (32%) focused on analgesia and pain-relief effects, followed by effects on brain activity (16%). All types of the reviewed ASDs were associated with increasing annual publication trends; specifically, the annual growth in publications regarding noninvasive stimulation methods was more rapid than that regarding invasive methods. Based on this observation, we anticipate that the noninvasive or minimally invasive ASDs will become more popular in acupuncture therapy.
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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.