Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Institute for General Practice and Interprofessional Care, Medical University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 23;15(7):e0236004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236004. eCollection 2020.
In today's Western societies a high percentage of people experience increased or chronic stress. Acupuncture could serve as treatment for persons affected adversely by the increased stress.
The AkuRest study was a two-centre randomized controlled pilot study in adult persons with increased stress levels. Participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups: verum acupuncture treatment, sham acupuncture, and a waiting control group. The feasibility of the study was assessed. In addition, effects on stress level (measured by the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-20)) and other variables were assessed at the end of treatment and a 3-month follow-up.
Altogether, N = 70 persons were included in the study. At the end of the treatment 15.7% were lost to follow-up. The adherence to the protocol was good: 82.9% of the participants completed 100% of their treatment. The stress level of the participants was high at baseline (mean PSQ-20 score 75.5, SD = 8.2). Effect sizes (ES) at T1 showed that verum and sham acupuncture were superior to the waiting condition in reducing stress (ES (verum) = -1.39, 95%-CI = [-2.11; -0.67]: ES (sham) = -1.12, CI = [-1.78;-0.44]). At follow-up, effect sizes were in favour of the verum group (as compared to sham). However, confidence intervals and t-tests showed that these differences were not significant.
The pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of the acupuncture RCT in persons with increased stress levels. Estimated parameters can be used to design a larger RCT to prove the-here indicated-efficacy of verum acupuncture to decrease stress.
ISRCTN15259166.
在当今的西方社会，很大一部分人经历着压力的增加或慢性压力。针灸可能成为治疗因压力增加而受到不利影响的人的一种方法。
AkuRest 研究是一项在有较高压力水平的成年人中进行的双中心随机对照试验。参与者被随机分配到三组之一：真针灸治疗组、假针灸组和等待对照组。评估了该研究的可行性。此外，在治疗结束时和 3 个月随访时评估了压力水平（用感知压力问卷（PSQ-20）测量）和其他变量的变化。
共纳入 70 名患者参加研究。治疗结束时，15.7%的患者失访。方案的依从性很好：82.9%的参与者完成了 100%的治疗。参与者的压力水平在基线时较高（PSQ-20 平均得分 75.5，标准差=8.2）。T1 时的效应大小（ES）表明，真针灸和假针灸在降低压力方面优于等待组（ES（真）=-1.39，95%置信区间（CI）=-2.11；-0.67：ES（假）=-1.12，CI=-1.78；-0.44）。随访时，真针灸组的效应大小更有利。然而，置信区间和 t 检验表明这些差异没有统计学意义。
这项初步研究表明，在有较高压力水平的人群中进行针灸 RCT 是可行的。估计的参数可用于设计更大的 RCT，以证明真针灸降低压力的疗效。
ISRCTN85259166。
