ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the therapeutic effect of acupuncture on insomnia.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A systematic evaluation of all relevant randomized controlled trials (RCT) about acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of insomnia was carried out. The data were statistically analyzed with a special software RevMan 4.1.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Six papers of RCT including 585 patients met the enrolled criteria. All of the trials were of lower in methodological quality without using blind method; Meta-analysis indicated that odds ratio was 3.55, 95% confidence interval [2.50, 5.05], P < 0.0001, as acupuncture group compared with drug group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Acupuncture is possibly effective for insomnia. However, because of lower methodological quality of all the trials, this conclusion has no enough evidence.</p>