Trial reportBMC complementary medicine and therapies2024
The altered hypothalamic network functional connectivity in chronic insomnia disorder and regulation effect of acupuncture: a randomized controlled neuroimaging study.
Trial report in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Placebo Effect of Sham Acupuncture for Primary Insomnia: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.Journal of sleep research · 2026Pooled it
- Mapping the research landscape of traditional Chinese medicine in insomnia management: a bibliometric study (2005-2024).Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Neural Effects of Low-Frequency Acupoint Electrical Stimulation Therapy on Patients With Poststroke Motor Dysfunction: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation · 2026Article
- Acupuncture-related peripheral stimulation as a candidate neuromodulatory model of insomnia: clinical evidence, sleep-wake circuitry, and translational limits.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Resting-State Functional Connectivity Alterations in Insomnia Disorder: A Systematic Review of Studies Published from 2020 to July 2025.Nature and science of sleep · 2026Review
- Neuroinflammation-informed neuroimaging-transcriptomic signatures explaining acupuncture's therapeutic effects in chronic insomnia.Chinese medicine · 2025Article
- Skin-Brain Axis: neural pathways in acupuncture treatment.Chinese medicine · 2025Review
- Cerebral Blood Flow Changes and Their Spatial Correlations With GABAa and Dopamine-D1 Receptor Explaining Individual Differences in Chronic Insomnia and the Therapeutic Effects of Acupuncture.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- The altered hypothalamic network functional connectivity in diminished ovarian reserve and regulation effect of acupuncture: a randomized controlled neuroimaging study protocol.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture modulates electroencephalographic microstate dynamics to alleviate chronic insomnia: a machine learning approach for predicting individual treatment response.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe hypothalamus has been recognized as a core structure in the sleep-wake cycle. However, whether the neuroplasticity of the hypothalamus is involved in the acupuncture treatment of insomnia remains elusive.
methodsWe recruited 42 patients with chronic insomnia disorder (CID) and 23 matched healthy controls (HCs), with CID patients randomly assigned to receive real acupuncture (RA) or sham acupuncture (SA) for four weeks. Insomnia severity was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, and the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the hypothalamus was assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
resultsIn the cross-sectional investigation, CID patients showed increased rsFC between the medial hypothalamus (MH) and left lateral orbital frontal cortex (LOFC), and bilateral medial orbital frontal cortex (MOFC) compared to HCs. In the longitudinal experiment, PSQI scores significantly decreased in the RA group (p = 0.03) but not in the SA group. Interestingly, the increased MH-LOFC connectivity was found to be reduced following RA treatment. In addition, the altered rsFC of MH-LOFC significantly correlated with clinical improvement in the RA group (r = -0.692, p = 0.006).
conclusionThis randomized neuroimaging study provides preliminary evidence that acupuncture may improve insomnia symptoms by restoring circuits associated with hypothalamic subregions.
trial registrationThis trial has been registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( www.chictr.org.cn ) with the identifier (ChiCTR1800017092). Registered date: 11/07/2018.
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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.