SynthesisPain research & management2019
Comparison between the Effects of Acupuncture Relative to Other Controls on Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Pain research & management, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- The effect of acupuncture on quality of life in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- The Autonomic Nervous System in Acupuncture for Gastrointestinal Dysmotility: From Anatomical Insights to Clinical Medicine.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- Prescription and consumption of opioids after bariatric surgery: a multicenter prospective cohort study.Surgical endoscopy · 2023Article
- Acupuncture as Part of Multimodal Analgesia for Chronic Pain.Orthopedic reviews · 2022Article
- Article
- Standardizing and optimizing acupuncture treatment for irritable bowel syndrome: A Delphi expert consensus study.Integrative medicine research · 2021Article
- Efficacy of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Abdominal Pain.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2021Review
- Therapeutic mechanism of steaming umbilical cord therapy with Chinese herbal medicine on a rat model of IBS-D via the PAR-2/TRVP1 pathway.American journal of translational research · 2021Article
- Difference in Moxibustion-Induced Microcirculatory Responses between the Heart and Lung Meridians Assessed by Laser Doppler Flowmetry.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2021Article
- The microcirculatory characteristics of the heart and lung meridians: Study protocol clinical trial (SPIRIT Compliant).Medicine · 2020Article
- Efficacy and Safety of Acupoint Catgut Embedding for Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Constipation-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2020Review
- Quality of Evidence Supporting the Role of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Pain research & managementArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder with recurrent abdominal pain and altered defecation habits. We here attempted to determine the effect of acupuncture on IBS. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of science, and ClinicalTrials.gov till July 17, 2019 were searched. Outcomes were total efficacy rates, overall IBS symptom scores, or global quality of life scores. Standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and risk ratio (RR) with 95% CI were calculated for meta-analysis. Results: We included 41 RCTs involving 3440 participants for analysis. 8 RCTs compared acupuncture with sham acupuncture, among which 3 trials confirmed the biological effects of acupuncture, especially in treating abdominal pain, discomfort, and stool frequency. No significant difference was found when acupuncture was compared with sham acupuncture, in terms of effects on IBS symptoms and quality of life (SMD = 0.18, 95% CI -0.26∼0.63, Conclusions: Relative to sham controls, acupuncture showed no superiority for treating IBS, while the advantage over western medicine was significant. Acupuncture could be used as an adjunct in clinical settings to improve efficacy. Future high-quality and large-sample-size studies with adequate quantity-effect design need to be conducted.
Indexed as
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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.