PubMed ID |
Author / Year |
Patient Group |
Study type
(level of evidence) |
15899016 | Jedel/2005 | Three articles of controlled clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of xerostomia | Systematic Review |
Key results | This systematic review showed that there is no evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of xerostomia. This conclusion was based on reviewing three articles/studies. One study was high quality of assessment in accordance with the criteria list by Jadad et al., which has previously been tested for its reliability. This high quality study showed indifferent results about efficacy of acupuncture treatments in the management of xerostomia. One out of these three studies with low quality assessment showed indifferent results, while the other with low quality showed positive results. |
12436835 | Brennan MT, Shariff G, Lockhart PB, Fox PC. / 2002 | Review of randomized trials published in peer-reviewed journal | Systematic Review |
Key results | This systemic review shows that the existing literature on xerostomia treatments present biases and weaknesses. Thus, in order to get a meaningful statistically significant efficacy on an outcome measurement of xerostomia intervention, it is necessary to design and conduct a clinical trial in a well-controlled and minimized bias setting. |
18532895 | Cho JH, Chung WK, Kang W, Choi SM, Cho CK, Son CG. /2008 | 12 patients with radiation-induced xerostomia | Randomized Controlled Trial |
Key results | Patients receiving real acupuncture treatment have significantly increased their un-stimulated salivary flow rates. Both patients receiving placebo acupuncture treatment and those receiving real acupuncture treatments showed slight increase in their whole stimulated salivary flow rate, with no significance difference between them. In addition, subjective symptom changes using the simple patient-reported questionnaire have examined. The results of the subjective examination did not show significant difference between the two groups at any point, except after 6 weeks with a p value of < 0.05. However, this statistical significance is not powerful due to the small number of subjects and nonuniform severity of xerostomia. |
15899016 | Blom M, Dawidson I, Angmar-Månsson B./ 1992 | 21 patients with severe xerostomia | Randomized Controlled Trial |
Key results | Patients who received acupuncture treatment have increased their salivary flow rates throughout and after the treatment for a year. Those who received placebo treatment only showrd improvement of their salivary flow rates during the treatment. However, many factors can influence the salivary production, thus influence the results of the study. These factors include positive expectations prior to the treatment, lowered dosage of hypnotic medication, and the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, which said that “There is always some positive effect of an acupuncture needle, even when the needle is not placed accurately.”(8) Therefore, this study indicates that acupuncture treatment may be a useful adjunct for the stimulation of salivary secretion in some patients with xerostomia. |
18606019 | Deng G, Hou BL, Holodny AI, Cassileth BR. /2008 | 20 healthy volunteers | Randomized Controlled Trial |
Key results | True acupuncture induced more saliva production than sham acupuncture. This conclusion is obtained by looking at the cortical regions that were activated or deactivated during the interventions evaluated by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Changes in neuroimaging signal appear correlated to saliva production. This study showed that acupuncture point LI-2 that is commonly used to treat xerostomia was associated with activation of the insula and adjacent operculi at the cortical regions. However, no activation or deactivation was detected during sham acupuncture. Several limitations were noted in this study: only one type of control intervention, and no subjective inputs about the sensation or “deqi” sensations. Furthermore, although the data in this study indicated that areas activated by acupuncture at LI-2 overlap with those involved in gustation or salivation, this study was descriptive in nature. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that there is a casual relationship such as activation led to increased salivation. |