School of Science and Technology, The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Apr;16(4):435-47. doi: 10.1089/acm.2009.0348.
Constipation is a common health problem that adversely affects an individual's general health and quality of life. Constipated people usually manage the problem by taking laxatives and by modifying their lifestyle even if such have questionable therapeutic effects. Auriculotherapy, a safe treatment modality in Chinese medicine, has been reported to be effective in managing constipation. Despite previous studies reported encouraging results in using auriculotherapy, its effectiveness in managing constipation has not been systematically reviewed. This review, therefore, examines previous studies that have investigated the effectiveness of auriculotherapy in managing constipation.
A search in the databases of MEDLINE EMBASE, AMED, and China Academic Journals Full-text Database and manual searching were performed to identify relevant clinical studies.
A total of 29 relevant clinical studies conducted from 1994 to 2008 were identified. All of the studies reported that auriculotherapy was effective in managing constipation. However, generalization of their findings was limited because of two significant methodological flaws: (1) uncertainty in accurate acupoints identification and subjects' compliance to instructions resulted in varied doses of intervention received; and (2) inconsistent intervention protocols and therapeutic outcome criteria made comparison among different studies difficult.
The findings of this review could provide pertinent information for researchers in terms of study designs and methodologies that may be used for future studies. The use of randomized controlled trials on a sample of sufficient size and of standard intervention protocol is recommended to provide empirical evidence that will support auriculotherapy as a complementary strategy in managing constipation.
便秘是一种常见的健康问题，会对个体的整体健康和生活质量产生不利影响。便秘患者通常通过服用泻药和改变生活方式来解决问题，尽管这些方法的治疗效果存在疑问。耳穴疗法是一种安全的中医疗法，据报道对治疗便秘有效。尽管之前的研究报告了耳穴疗法在治疗便秘方面的令人鼓舞的结果，但它在治疗便秘方面的有效性尚未得到系统审查。因此，本次综述检查了之前研究耳穴疗法治疗便秘的效果的研究。
在 MEDLINE EMBASE、AMED 和中国学术期刊全文数据库中进行了检索，并进行了手动检索，以确定相关的临床研究。
共确定了 29 项从 1994 年至 2008 年进行的相关临床研究。所有研究都报告说耳穴疗法对治疗便秘有效。然而，由于两个重要的方法学缺陷，其发现的推广受到限制：（1）无法准确确定穴位和患者对医嘱的遵守情况导致干预剂量不同；（2）干预方案和治疗结果标准不一致，使得不同研究之间的比较变得困难。
本次综述的结果可为研究人员提供有关研究设计和方法学的相关信息，这些信息可能用于未来的研究。建议进行足够大样本量的随机对照试验，并采用标准的干预方案，以提供支持耳穴疗法作为治疗便秘的补充策略的经验证据。
