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| |  ASH: Hypertensives Don't Benefit From Repetitive Acupuncture By Jill Stein NEW YORK, NY -- May 20, 2004 -- Repeated acupuncture treatments do not provide sustained control of high blood pressure, according to data presented here on May 20th at the American Society of Hypertension Nineteenth Annual Scientific Meeting. Richard C. Robinson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, presented the findings. The study was prompted by concern that acupuncture is a popular among people with hypertension despite an absence of data demonstrating its efficacy for this condition, Dr. Robinson explained. A recent review of almost 500 randomised controlled trials published since 1970 for the efficacy of acupuncture for various indications made no mention of its use for treatment of hypertension, Dr Robinson said. He added that a Medline search by the authors of the present study revealed no published reports of the long-term effects of acupuncture on blood pressure. "Before advocating acupuncture as an effective strategy for hypertension, its long-term effects need to be tested in a manner that is scientifically robust, longlasting, and mechanistically explicable," Dr. Robinson said. To evaluate the effect of acupuncture on hypertension, Dr. Robinson enrolled 11 otherwise healthy persons with normal to stage I hypertension who underwent a series of 30-minutes sessions of electrical acupuncture at traditional Chinese hypertension sites. Sessions were conducted two to three times a week for 4 weeks. All subjects underwent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and peroneal or radial nerve microneurography before and after their acupuncture sessions. Routine blood pressure was measured four times before and after each acupuncture session. In all subjects, systolic blood pressure dropped an average of 3 to 4 mm Hg at the end of each acupuncture session with the exception of one session. However, the blood pressure readings were not associated with sustained decreases over the 4 weeks of the study. No changes were seen in diastolic blood pressure. Only one subject had a significant decrease in clinical blood pressure from the start of treatment to just after the last acupuncture session after 4 weeks of treatment. There were no overall changes in ambulatory systolic blood pressure from baseline to after 4 weeks treatment. Overall, the results show a lack of persistent, long-term blood pressure decreases as a result of acupuncture treatment, Dr. Robinson said.
[Presentation title: "Lack of effect of repetitive acupuncture on clinic and ambulatory blood pressure." Poster P1]
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