Research: Acupuncture for primary insomnia

Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment on primary insomnia

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that is often characterized as trouble falling asleep, staying asleep through the night, or waking up earlier than desired. Statistics show that nearly half of the adult population in the U.S. experiences trouble sleeping, while about 15% of cases are chronic. Lack of sleep can often lead to fatigue, irritability, anxiety and depression, as well as poor memory and concentration. The two main types include short term insomnia and chronic insomnia. Short term insomnia can last a few days or weeks and is often triggered by stress. Chronic insomnia, often referred to as primary insomnia, is determined when sleep disturbances occur at least three times a week, for three months or more.

In a 2017 study researchers took a group of 72 patients all whom had primary insomnia, and randomly assigned them into two groups — the acupuncture group, who received acupuncture, and the control group, who received sham acupuncture. Both were seen three times a week for four weeks, for a total of 12 sessions. They were also asked to wear sleep monitors and complete questionnaires ever two weeks for a total of 8 weeks. Outcomes were measured using Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), sleep efficiency (SE), sleep awakenings (SA) and total sleep time (TST), as well as scores of the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Results from this study showed that there was a significant difference in all indicators in the acupuncture group before and after acupuncture treatment. Notably, the most dramatic improvements were seen for ISI in the acupuncture group. Additionally, the researchers found there were remarkable decrements in SA and SAS in the acupuncture treatment group during follow up. The overarching conclusion is that acupuncture was found more effective than sham acupuncture for improving both sleep quality and psychological health in patients with primary insomnia.

Is it important to note that while sham acupuncture has been the standard for acupuncture studies to this point, there is an ongoing effort to develop and advance research methodologies that are better suited to fit the scope of Chinese medicine. New approaches include mixed-methods study design, community-based participatory research methods, and the inclusion of neuroimaging techniques, such as fMRI, which can detect physiological changes in the body and brain.

References

Yin X, Gou M, Xu J, Dong B, Yin P, Masquelin F, Wu J, Lao L, Xu S. Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment on primary insomnia: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep Med. 2017 Sep;37:193-200. doi: