ABSTRACT
Despite the widespread use of acupuncture, its effectiveness and safety in treating Tourette syndrome (TS) remain controversial. Our research seeks to further evaluate the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture as a replacement therapy approach for children with TS. We conducted a comprehensive search for studies published from their inception to October 2023. The statistical analysis and subgroup analysis were conducted by software. Conduct a meta-analysis on the extracted data using the appropriate effect models. The meta-analysis was conducted on 26 studies consisting 1862 pediatric patients, which were selected from 976 identified articles. Acupuncture group demonstrated a significantly lower risk with a risk ratio (RR) of 0.29 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.19, 0.44, P < .0001), with only 5% of participants experiencing adverse reactions. Acupuncture treatment resulted in an 18% improvement in total effectiveness rates (RR = 1.18, 95% CI = [1.12, 1.25], P < .00001). The pooled data demonstrated that acupuncture therapy had a significant advantage in reducing the total score with the weighted mean difference (WMD) -4.92 (95% CI = [-6.38, -3.45], P < .00001) of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), the motor tic scores (WMD = -2.24, 95% CI = [-3.14, -1.35], P < .00001), the vocal tic scores (WMD: -2.34, 95% CI = [-3.31, -1.37], P < .00001), and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Scores (TCMSS) (WMD: -2.47, 95% CI = [-2.87, -2.07], P < .0001). This meta-analysis reveals that acupuncture is more effective than most existing treatments in mitigating the symptoms of motor and vocal tics in children with TS, while also reducing the incidence of adverse reactions.
ABSTRACT
Background: Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) refers to functional dysmenorrhea, typically characterized by cyclical, pronounced lower abdominal pain and seriously affects a woman's work and quality of life. Some studies have reported that heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM) is expected to alleviate the clinical symptoms. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the current evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of HSM on PD. Methods: 7 databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang Data Knowledge Service Platform (Wan Fang Data), and China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) were searched for clinical randomized controlled trials. Meanwhile, Revman 5.3 software was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included literature. The confidence interval (CI) of either relative risk or mean difference was set to 95%. Besides, the heterogeneity of the research results is tested by I2. Results: 19 studies were ultimately included in this meta-analysis. All of them were declared as random controlled trials. 18 studies reported the total effective rate of the test group and the control group, which was significantly higher (RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85,0.99; P=0.031 < 0.05) than the control group. It is demonstrated that the VAS score of the test group, totally 9 studies included, was significantly lower (SMD: -0.98; 95% CI: -1.15, -0.81; P < 0.001). The meta-analysis of 6 studies showed the symptom score of the test group was significantly lower (SMD: -0.67; 95% CI: -0.87, -0.47; P < 0.001). There were the CMSS results of 3 studies which were significantly lower (SMD: -0.88; 95% CI: -1.13, -0.62; P < 0.001). Combined with the results of subgroup analysis, compared with the control group, the test group had advantages in the VAS score, symptom score, and CMSS score. Conclusions: The result has revealed the effectiveness and feasibility of HSM in treating PD, especially in improving the total effective rate and reducing the VAS score, symptom score, and CMSS score.