ArticleFrontiers in neurology
Clinical efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroacupuncture at Baliao points for functional constipation: a retrospective study.
Article 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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7 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Functional constipation (FC) is a prevalent gastrointestinal disorder with suboptimal treatment outcomes. Using a retrospective design, we examined whether adding repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to electroacupuncture (EA) at Baliao points was associated with greater clinical improvement than EA alone in patients with FC, and to generate hypotheses regarding combined neuromodulation. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included FC patients treated at a single hospital from February 2022 to March 2025, allocated by the treatment received to an observation group (rTMS combined with EA, Results: After 8 weeks, CSBMs increased more in the observation group (week-8 median 4.00 vs. 3.00; Conclusion: In this retrospective, non-randomized cohort, adding rTMS to EA at Baliao points was associated with greater improvements in bowel frequency, symptom severity, quality of life and colonic transit, with comparable safety, and these associations were robust to propensity-score and multivariable adjustment. Given the absence of randomization, sham control and blinding, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in adequately powered, sham-controlled randomized trials.
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