Acupuncture with Methadone for heroin withdrawal syndrome: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

ABSTRACT

Objective:To assess the efficacy of acupuncture plus Methadone in treating heroin withdrawal syndrome.Methods:According to the requirements of evidence-based medicine, the inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and retrieval strategy were set for original documents. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving acupuncture plus Methadone in treating heroin withdrawal syndrome were retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), Wanfang Academic Journal Full-text Database (Wanfang), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chongqing VIP Database (CQVIP), PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMBASE. According to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, each included trial was assessed strictly including risk of bias and quality evaluation. Meta-analysis and descriptive-analysis were conducted using the RevMan 5.3 software.Results:A total of 8 trials involving 931 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that there was no statistical significance [RR=1.05; 95%CI (0.99, 1.11);P=0.11] in comparing total effective rate between the acupuncture plus Methadone and Methadone alone; the cure rate of acupuncture plus Methadone was higher than that of Methadone alone [RR=1.45; 95%CI (1.19, 1.78);P=0.0003]; the relapse rate of the acupuncture plus Methadone was lower [RR=0.691; 95%CI (0.60, 0.80);P<0.00001]. On the basis of these results, the method recommended by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was taken to evaluate the quality of the evidence. It showed that the level of the evidence was low and it was weakly recommended.Conclusion:According to the included trials, acupuncture plus Methadone in treating heroin withdrawal syndrome is more effective and better than Methadone alone, but it still needs more high-quality, large sample, and polycentric researches to confirm it.