Efficacy of acupuncture therapy on cancer-related insomnia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Liying Chen; Jiaqi Li; Shiting Xu; Zhiyi Liu; Yang Jiao; Zhongyu Zhou

doi:10.3389/fneur.2024.1342383

Efficacy of acupuncture therapy on cancer-related insomnia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Front Neurol. 2024 Feb 13:15:1342383. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1342383. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Liying Chen^#^{1

2}, Jiaqi Li^#³, Shiting Xu^{1

2}, Zhiyi Liu⁴, Yang Jiao^{1

2}, Zhongyu Zhou^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
² Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
³ Optics Valley Hospital District Medical Office, Hospital of Stomatology Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
⁴ College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objectives: Cancer-related insomnia (CRI) takes a toll on many cancer survivors, causing distressing symptoms and deteriorating the quality of life. Acupuncture therapy has been used for CRI already. However, it is still uncertain which acupuncture regime is best for CRI. The primary objective of this review is to conduct a comparative evaluation and ranking of the effectiveness of different acupuncture therapies for CRI.

Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that were published up to July 31, 2023, from 8 databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, and China Biology Medicine disc) were integrated in this study. Trials that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated the risk of bias. Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) was used to assess the efficacy of different acupuncture therapies as the primary outcome. Then, STATA 15, R, and OpenBUGS were applied to perform the network meta-analysis. PRISMA statements were followed in this network meta-analysis.

Results: A total of 37 studies were included in this review, involving 16 interventions with 3,246 CRI participants. Auriculotherapy + moxibustion [surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) 98.98%] and auriculotherapy (SUCRA 77.47%) came out top of the ranking, which were more effective than control, medicine, usual care and sham acupuncture.

Conclusion: Auriculotherapy + moxibustion and auriculotherapy + acupuncture emerged as the top two acupuncture regimes for CRI and future studies should pay more attention to CRI.

Clinical trial registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier INPLASY202210095.

Keywords: acupuncture therapy; cancer-related insomnia; network meta-analysis; non-pharmacological therapy; the complication of cancer.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by The training object of the second Leading Medical Talents Project in Hubei Province and the project of Hubei Famous Doctor Studio (Hubei Provincial Health Commission announcement [2019]47); key special research project for “double first-class” construction of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine (2023ZZXT005); knowledge innovation project of Wuhan Science and Technology Department 2023020201010172).