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DG DISPATCH - CDDW: Acupuncture Not Significantly Beneficial In IBS Symptoms By Louise Gagnon Special to DG News QUEBEC CITY, QC -- March 13, 2000 -- Acupuncture has no specific therapeutic effect on the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a randomized, double-blind study presented here at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology. "We did not find a statistically significant difference between patients with IBS who were treated with acupuncture and those patients who were treated with placebo," said Dr. Catherine Lowe, a former fellow at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "There is an improvement in symptoms in patients who were using acupuncture, but not great enough to say that acupuncture is superior to no intervention." Researchers were motivated to examine the effect of acupuncture because of animal studies which had shown that acupuncture increases motility, as well as having an analgesic effect that dulls pain, according to Dr. Lowe. In addition, anecdotal evidence indicates that patients with IBS report that they experience symptom relief with acupuncture. The study used self-reported treatment success as a measure of symptom relief. A total of 50 patients, recruited from newspaper advertising, were randomized to either acupuncture treatment (28) or placebo (22). They were matched for variables such as age and symptoms. A total of 59 percent of patients in the treatment arm were female while 79 percent of patients in the placebo arm were female. Acupuncture was conducted by a physiotherapist twice weekly for a period of four weeks. Patients in the treatment arm had needles inserted into their skin with tape placed next to the needles at nine points for 20 minutes. Patients were evaluated at baseline, four weeks, and three months. At three months, it was found that 57 percent of patients who received acupuncture reported symptom relief while 45 percent of patients on placebo reported symptom relief. Researchers were aiming to see a 40 percent improvement over placebo to establish acupuncture as therapeutically effective in treating IBS. "The results also show that participation in a clinical trial can have an effect on patients," said Dr. Lowe. "Patients who have IBS would typically look for more alternative therapies than patients suffering from other digestive diseases." E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version