SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2025
Effectiveness and safety of acupuncture therapies for intractable hiccups: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis 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
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Comparative Review of Antipsychotic Efficacy and Safety in the Treatment of Hiccups.Neurosciences (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) · 2026Pooled it
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Intractable hiccups (IH) have diverse causes, including central lesions (e.g., stroke, intracranial injury) and peripheral triggers (e.g., gastrointestinal disease, tumors, chemotherapy, cirrhosis, surgery). IH significantly impairs quality of life, delays recovery, and increases the risk of complications. Acupuncture is frequently used as a complementary or alternative therapy for IH in China, but no prior study has systematically compared different acupuncture modalities within a unified framework. Objective: To assess the comparative effectiveness and safety of multiple acupuncture therapies for treating IH via network meta-analysis. Methods: RCTs on acupuncture for IH published from January 2015 to January 2025 were retrieved from eight databases and four clinical trial registries. Study quality was assessed via the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analysis was performed with Stata software. Results: The 41 included studies were all conducted in China and published in Chinese and no studies or data from other countries. The studies covered a total of 3,060 patients with IH and 15 types of acupuncture-related intervention measures. Manual acupuncture combined with acupoint injection showed the highest efficacy in improving both total effective rate and quality of life. Electroacupuncture combined with conventional medicine was most effective in reducing hiccup symptoms. Among monotherapies, auricular acupressure achieved the greatest improvement in total effective rate. All acupuncture therapies demonstrated acceptable safety, with no serious adverse events reported. Conclusion: Acupuncture appears effective and safe for treating IH in China. Combination therapies outperformed monotherapies, with manual acupuncture plus acupoint injection showing the greatest efficacy and acceptable safety. Electroacupuncture with conventional medication was most effective for symptom relief. However, limitations of linguistic and geographical scope, potential favorable bias and uneven methodological quality warrant further high-quality international studies. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42025638314.
Indexed as
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.