KMCRIC

Acupuncture for Menopausal Hot Flashes: A Randomized Trial.

Ee C, Xue C, Chondros P, Myers SP, French SD, Teede H, Pirotta M.

Ann Intern Med.

2016

164(3)

146-54.

10.7326/M15-1380.

26784863

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784863

Acupuncture Therapy*/adverse effects
Anxiety
Depression
Double-Blind Method
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Hot Flashes/complications
Hot Flashes/psychology
Hot Flashes/therapy*
Humans
Kidney Diseases/complications
Kidney Diseases/diagnosis
Menopause*
Middle Aged
Postmenopause
Quality of Life
Treatment Outcome
Yin Deficiency/complications
Yin Deficiency/diagnosis

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BACKGROUND:
Hot flashes (HFs) affect up to 75% of menopausal women and pose a considerable health and financial burden. Evidence of acupuncture efficacy as an HF treatment is conflicting.

OBJECTIVE:
To assess the efficacy of Chinese medicine acupuncture against sham acupuncture for menopausal HFs.

DESIGN:
Stratified, blind (participants, outcome assessors, and investigators, but not treating acupuncturists), parallel, randomized, sham-controlled trial with equal allocation. (Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12611000393954).

SETTING:
Community in Australia.

PARTICIPANTS:
Women older than 40 years in the late menopausal transition or postmenopause with at least 7 moderate HFs daily, meeting criteria for Chinese medicine diagnosis of kidney yin deficiency.

INTERVENTIONS:
10 treatments over 8 weeks of either standardized Chinese medicine needle acupuncture designed to treat kidney yin deficiency or noninsertive sham acupuncture.

MEASUREMENTS:
The primary outcome was HF score at the end of treatment. Secondary outcomes included quality of life, anxiety, depression, and adverse events. Participants were assessed at 4 weeks, the end of treatment, and then 3 and 6 months after the end of treatment. Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted with linear mixed-effects models.

RESULTS:
327 women were randomly assigned to acupuncture (n = 163) or sham acupuncture (n = 164). At the end of treatment, 16% of participants in the acupuncture group and 13% in the sham group were lost to follow-up. Mean HF scores at the end of treatment were 15.36 in the acupuncture group and 15.04 in the sham group (mean difference, 0.33 [95% CI, -1.87 to 2.52]; P = 0.77). No serious adverse events were reported.

LIMITATION:
Participants were predominantly Caucasian and did not have breast cancer or surgical menopause.

CONCLUSION:
Chinese medicine acupuncture was not superior to noninsertive sham acupuncture for women with moderately severe menopausal HFs.

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