SynthesisFrontiers in neurology
Efficacy of acupuncture-based traditional Chinese medicine therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in neurology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Objective: To systematically review the available evidence on acupuncture-related therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), with cautious interpretation due to the limited number and heterogeneity of studies. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on acupuncture-related therapies for CFS from database inception to April 1, 2026. Two researchers independently performed literature screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. The methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated using the Cochrane RoB 2 tool for RCTs. Meta-analysis was conducted using R software. Continuous outcomes were expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI), and binary outcomes as risk ratio (RR) with 95% CI. Primary outcomes included overall fatigue, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, total response rate, and incidence of adverse events. Results: A total of 8 RCTs involving 715 patients were included. Risk of bias assessment showed that one study had a high overall risk of bias, and seven studies raised "some concerns." Meta-analysis results indicated that acupuncture-related therapies were superior to control interventions in improving overall fatigue, with a statistically significant difference (SMD = -1.31, 95% CI: -2.16 to -0.47, Conclusion: Current limited evidence indicates that acupuncture-related therapies may have some beneficial effects on overall, physical, and mental fatigue in patients with CFS, and may increase response rates; however, these findings should be interpreted cautiously due to small sample sizes, moderate risk of bias, and heterogeneity among studies. No explicit safety hazards have been confirmed. And further validation by more high-quality RCTs is needed. Systematic review registration: This systematic review protocol was preregistered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://osf.io. Registration DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/KJ67M).
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