Division of Standard Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
Int J Clin Pract. 2009 Jun;63(6):874-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02043.x.
Acupuncture is often used as a treatment for dementia and is claimed to be effective in improving intelligence.
The objective of this review is to assess the clinical evidence for or against acupuncture as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
We searched the literature using 17 databases from their inception to August 2008, without language restrictions. We included all randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of needle acupuncture to treat human patients suffering from AD. Methodological quality was assessed using the Jadad score.
Three RCTs met all inclusion criteria. Two RCTs assessed the effectiveness of acupuncture on cognitive function compared with drug therapy. Their results suggested no significant effect in favour of acupuncture [n = 72, weight mean difference (WMDs), -0.55; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) -1.31 to 0.21, p = 0.15, heterogeneity: tau(2) = 0, chi(2) = 0.048, p = 0.49, I(2) = 0%]. Two RCTs tested acupuncture for activities of daily living (ADL). One RCT reported favourable effects of drug therapy compared with acupuncture for ADL, while the other failed to so. The meta-analysis of these data showed significant effects of drug therapy compared with acupuncture (n = 72, WMD, -1.29; 95% CIs: -1.77 to -0.80, p < 0.001, heterogeneity: tau(2) = 0, chi(2) = 0.17, p = 0.68, I(2) = 0%).
Even though the number of studies is small, the existing evidence does not demonstrate the effectiveness of acupuncture for AD.
针灸常被用于治疗痴呆症，据称其能有效提高智力。
本综述旨在评估针灸治疗阿尔茨海默病（AD）的临床证据。
我们检索了 17 个数据库，检索时间从建库至 2008 年 8 月，无语言限制。我们纳入了所有针对针灸治疗 AD 患者的随机对照试验（RCT）。采用 Jadad 评分评估方法学质量。
3 项 RCT 完全符合纳入标准。2 项 RCT 评估了针灸对认知功能的影响，与药物治疗相比。结果表明，针灸对认知功能无明显影响[72 例，加权均数差（WMDs），-0.55；95%置信区间（CI）-1.31 至 0.21，p = 0.15，异质性：tau(2) = 0，chi(2) = 0.048，p = 0.49，I(2) = 0%]。2 项 RCT 测试了针灸对日常生活活动（ADL）的影响。一项 RCT 报告了药物治疗对 ADL 的效果优于针灸，而另一项则没有。对这些数据的荟萃分析显示，药物治疗对 ADL 的效果显著优于针灸（72 例，WMD，-1.29；95%CI：-1.77 至-0.80，p < 0.001，异质性：tau(2) = 0，chi(2) = 0.17，p = 0.68，I(2) = 0%）。
尽管研究数量较少，但现有证据并未表明针灸对 AD 有效。
