SynthesisBMC complementary and alternative medicine2019
Cognitive improvement effects of electro-acupuncture for the treatment of MCI compared with Western medications: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- The interventional effect of acupuncture on overall cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Pooled it
- A bibliometric analysis of acupuncture treatment and cognitive impairment.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of Acupuncture on Cognitive Function in Patients With Post-Stroke Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis investigating the impact of adjunctive electroacupuncture therapy on vascular mild cognitive impairment.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of electroacupuncture on postoperative cognitive dysfunction and its underlying mechanisms: a literature review of rodent studies.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of acupuncture-related techniques for mild cognitive impairment: A Bayesian network analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Acupuncture for mild cognitive impairment: A systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Effect of acupuncture on brain regions modulation of mild cognitive impairment: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of the herbal prescription Kami Guibi-tang on brain function in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: a task-based and resting-state fMRI study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Trial
- Acupuncture was associated with improved functional connectivity of the left hippocampal perceptual subregion in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Trial
- Selective Plasticity of Hippocampal Sub-Regions in the Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment After Acupuncture.Brain and behavior · 2025Trial
- Trial
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- Long-term electroacupuncture and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation differentially slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease in AppAlzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Neural mechanisms of acupuncture in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: a protocol for an fMRI-based systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Exploring the neural mechanisms of electroacupuncture for cognitive impairment in depression using functional near-infrared spectroscopy: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture and Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation for Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder in Older Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Comparative efficacy of seven nonpharmacological interventions on global cognition in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Altered regional homogeneity following moxibustion in mild cognitive impairment.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlmost half of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients progress to dementia, which is associated with decreased quality of life and obstacles to independent living. Relevant management is expected to prevent MCI patients from progressing to dementia. In recent years, electroacupuncture (EA) has been used to treat various kinds of neurological disorders including MCI. This study evaluates the use of EA for MCI patients to increase cognitive function through a comparison with Western medications.
methodsRandomized controlled trials (RCT) or systematical reviews (SR) of EA versus Western medications for MCI were searched using the following 10 databases: Pubmed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), National Digital Science Library (NDSL), Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry (JON), Korean Medical Database (KMBASE), KoreaMed, and OASIS, from October 2007 to August 2017, without language restriction. A methodological quality assessment of RCTs or SRs that met inclusion criteria was conducted using Cochrane Risk of bias (RoB) tool and a meta-analysis by RevMan (Review Manager) 5.3.5 version of Cochrane collaboration.
resultsFive RCTs with 257 patients met inclusion criteria and those were randomly divided into two groups: the EA group (n = 103) and Western medications group (n = 154). The methodological quality of the included studies showed high risk or/and unclear of risk of bias. The meta-analysis of five studies reported that the EA group was better than the Western medications group, improving the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score by 0.65 [95% CI 0.28~1.01] higher mean difference, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score by 0.66 [95% CI 0.00~1.32] higher mean difference. Adverse effects were not reported in the selected studies.
conclusionElectroacupuncture was an effective treatment for MCI patients by improving cognitive function. However, the included studies presented a low methodological quality and no adverse effects were reported. Thus, further comprehensive studies with a design in depth are needed to derive significant results.
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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.