Efficacy of electroacupuncture in the treatment of insomnia in cancer patients: A meta-analysis
Ke Li, Ying LuoBackground:
The purpose of this meta-analysis of current studies was to assess the efficacy of electroacupuncture for cancer-related insomnia.
Methods:
A comprehensive search was conducted encompassing randomized controlled trials examining the efficacy of electroacupuncture in treating cancer-related insomnia across CNKI, VIP, Wang Fang, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, and Web of Science, with a search deadline of December 26, 2023. The Cochrane manual’s risk-of-bias evaluation was used for quality assessment, while Stata 15.0 was used for the data analysis.
Results:
Eight randomized controlled studies involving 537 individuals were finally included. Meta-analysis results suggested that electroacupuncture improved total sleep time [SMD = 0.68, 95% CI (0.31, 1.06)], sleep efficiency [SMD = 1.26, 95% CI (0.02, 2.50)], and reduced Pittsburgh sleep quality index [SMD = –0.44, 95% CI (–0.63, −0.25)], insomnia severity index [SMD = –1.23, 95% CI (–1.88, −0.58)], and sleep onset latency [SMD = –0.76, 95% CI (–1.36, −0.15)] in cancer patients.
Conclusion:
Based on the current study, we found that electroacupuncture may have a better effect on insomnia in cancer patients.