ReviewEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2018
Pharmacoacupuncture for Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Review in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Pharmacoacupuncture for the Treatment of Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Current pain and headache reports · 2024Pooled it
- Acupuncture-Related Therapies for Parkinson's Disease: A Meta-Analysis and Qualitative Review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Determinants of traditional Korean medicine utilization by individuals with physical disabilities: inference of causal relationships using Korea health panel data.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Article
- Pharmacoacupuncture for the Treatment of Frozen Shoulder: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of pharmacopuncture · 2024Article
- Screening for Sarcopenia (Physical Frailty) in the COVID-19 Era.International journal of endocrinology · 2021Review
- Venoms as an adjunctive therapy for Parkinson's disease: where are we now and where are we going?Future science OA · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPharmacoacupuncture is a new acupuncture treatment that stimulates acupuncture points by injecting herbal medicine into them. Recently, pharmacoacupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of idiopathic Parkinson's disease in traditional East Asian medicine. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmacoacupuncture in the treatment of idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
methodsThe following electronic databases were searched for studies published in or before December 2016: Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, OASIS, and CNKI, without language restriction. The main outcome assessed was the total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score. The details of the pharmacoacupuncture intervention, such as the herbal medicine and acupuncture points used, were also investigated.
resultsFrom 138 studies, 3 randomized controlled trials were included; the number of patients analyzed was 134. Most of the studies showed considerable methodological flaws. There was heterogeneity of the intervention type and treatment duration in the included studies. Therefore, we could not conduct a meta-analysis. In one study, adjunctive bee venom pharmacoacupuncture therapy significantly improved total UPDRS scores compared with conventional therapy alone. Another study, which used adjunctive Kakkonein pharmacoacupuncture, did not reveal significant improvement compared with conventional therapy alone. A third study reported that Mailuoning pharmacoacupuncture was able to significantly improve the modified Webster Symptom Score when compared with no treatment. Adverse events related to the pharmacoacupuncture were reported in only one case, itching caused by the bee venom.
conclusionsOur findings regarding the efficacy of pharmacoacupuncture as a therapy for idiopathic Parkinson's disease are currently inconclusive. Further large and rigorous clinical trials are needed.
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.