① Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working
Dr Young seems to be mainly concerned to detail the conflict. The Master of Arts in Archaeology prepares students The Effect Of Tapestry In Nausicaä On The Valley Of The Wind professional careers in museums and in public and private Texas Servant Girl Murders (HDSI) resource management and heritage work as well as for Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working study toward the PhD. These federations themselves will Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working with Internationalssuch as the International Trade Union Confederation. Possibly Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working first such union was the General Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working of Trades, also known as the Philanthropic Society, founded Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working in Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working. Neither trial met the pre-defined primary outcome criteria Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working myopia progression defined as 1 diopter mean change.
Talking About Your Job in English - Spoken English Lesson
In the s, Mexico began adhering to Washington Consensus policies, selling off state industries such as railroad and telecommunications to private industries. The new owners had an antagonistic attitude towards unions, which, accustomed to comfortable relationships with the state, were not prepared to fight back. A movement of new unions began to emerge under a more independent model, while the former institutionalized unions had become very corrupt, violent, and led by gangsters.
With 1. It controls school curriculums, and all teacher appointments. Beginning in the midth century, they today have a large impact on the nature of employment and workers' rights in many of the Nordic countries. Today, the world's highest rates of union membership are in the Nordic countries. As of or latest year, the percentage of workers belonging to a union trade union density was The considerably raised membership fees of Swedish union unemployment funds implemented by the new center-right government in January caused large drops in membership in both unemployment funds and trade unions.
During the Spanish civil war anarchists , and syndicalists took control over much of Spain. Implementing worker control through a system of libertarian socialism with organizations like the anarcho-syndicalist CNT organizing throughout Spain. During the fascist regime of Spain the Francoist regime saw the worker movement and union movement as a threat, Franco banned all existing trade unions and set up the government controlled Spanish Syndical Organization as the only legal Spanish trade union, with the organization existing to maintain Francos power. Many anarchists, communists and leftists turned towards insurgent tactics as Franco implemented wide reaching authoritarian policies, with the CNT and other unions being forced underground.
Anarchists would operate covertly setting up local organizations and underground movements to challenge Franco. The death of Carrero Blanco had numerous political implications. By the end of , the physical health of Francisco Franco had declined significantly, and it epitomized the final crisis of the Francoist regime. After Franco's death Arias Navarro began relaxing Spanish authoritarianism. During the Spanish transition to democracy , leftist organizations became legal once again. In modern Spain trade unions now contribute massively towards Spanish society, being again the main catalyst for political change in Spain, with cooperatives employing large parts of the Spanish population such as the Mondragon Corporation.
Trade unions today lead mass protests against the Spanish government, and are one of the main vectors of political change. Moderate New Model Unions dominated the union movement from the midth century and where trade unionism was stronger than the political labour movement until the formation and growth of the Labour Party in the early years of the 20th century. Trade unionism in the United Kingdom was a major factor in some of the economic crises during the s and the s, culminating in the " Winter of Discontent " of late and early, when a significant percentage of the nation's public sector workers went on strike.
By this stage, some 12,, workers in the United Kingdom were trade union members. However, the election victory of the Conservative Party led by Margaret Thatcher at the general election , at the expense of Labour's James Callaghan , saw substantial trade union reform which saw the level of strikes fall. The level of trade union membership also fell sharply in the s, and continued falling for most of the s. The long decline of most of the industries in which manual trade unions were strong — e.
In , there were 6,, members in TUC-affiliated unions, down from a peak of 12,, in Trade union density was Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries in the United States. In the United States, unions were formed based on power with the people, not over the people like the government at the time. Larger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and supporting endorsed candidates at the state and federal level. Both advocate policies and legislation on behalf of workers in the United States and Canada, and take an active role in politics. In , the percentage of workers belonging to a union in the United States or total labor union "density" was The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers, police and other non-managerial or non-executive federal, state, county and municipal employees.
Members of unions are disproportionately older, male and residents of the Northeast, the Midwest, and California. The majority of union members come from the public sector. Nearly In the private sector, just 6. These unions are often divided into " locals ", and united in national federations. These federations themselves will affiliate with Internationals , such as the International Trade Union Confederation. However, in Japan, union organization is slightly different due to the presence of enterprise unions, i. These enterprise unions, however, join industry-wide federations which in turn are members of Rengo , the Japanese national trade union confederation. In Western Europe , professional associations often carry out the functions of a trade union.
In these cases, they may be negotiating for white-collar or professional workers, such as physicians, engineers or teachers. Typically such trade unions refrain from politics or pursue a more liberal politics than their blue-collar counterparts. A union may acquire the status of a " juristic person " an artificial legal entity , with a mandate to negotiate with employers for the workers it represents. In such cases, unions have certain legal rights, most importantly the right to engage in collective bargaining with the employer or employers over wages, working hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. The inability of the parties to reach an agreement may lead to industrial action , culminating in either strike action or management lockout , or binding arbitration.
In extreme cases, violent or illegal activities may develop around these events. In other circumstances, unions may not have the legal right to represent workers, or the right may be in question. This lack of status can range from non-recognition of a union to political or criminal prosecution of union activists and members, with many cases of violence and deaths having been recorded historically. Unions may also engage in broader political or social struggle. Social Unionism encompasses many unions that use their organizational strength to advocate for social policies and legislation favourable to their members or to workers in general. As well, unions in some countries are closely aligned with political parties. Unions are also delineated by the service model and the organizing model.
The service model union focuses more on maintaining worker rights, providing services, and resolving disputes. Alternately, the organizing model typically involves full-time union organizers , who work by building up confidence, strong networks, and leaders within the workforce; and confrontational campaigns involving large numbers of union members. Many unions are a blend of these two philosophies, and the definitions of the models themselves are still debated. In Britain, the perceived left-leaning nature of trade unions has resulted in the formation of a reactionary right-wing trade union called Solidarity which is supported by the far-right BNP.
In Denmark, there are some newer apolitical "discount" unions who offer a very basic level of services, as opposed to the dominating Danish pattern of extensive services and organizing. In contrast, in several European countries e. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland , religious unions have existed for decades. These unions typically distanced themselves from some of the doctrines of orthodox Marxism , such as the preference of atheism and from rhetoric suggesting that employees' interests always are in conflict with those of employers. Some of these Christian unions have had some ties to centrist or conservative political movements and some do not regard strikes as acceptable political means for achieving employees' goals.
Although their political structure and autonomy varies widely, union leaderships are usually formed through democratic elections. In Britain, previous to this EU jurisprudence, a series of laws introduced during the s by Margaret Thatcher's government restricted closed and union shops. All agreements requiring a worker to join a union are now illegal. It was stressed that Denmark and Iceland were among a limited number of contracting states that continue to permit the conclusion of closed-shop agreements. Union law varies from country to country, as does the function of unions.
For example, German and Dutch unions have played a greater role in management decisions through participation in corporate boards and co-determination than have unions in the United States. Concerning labour market regulation in the EU, Gold [93] and Hall [94] have identified three distinct systems of labour market regulation, which also influence the role that unions play:. The United States takes a more laissez-faire approach, setting some minimum standards but leaving most workers' wages and benefits to collective bargaining and market forces.
Thus, it comes closest to the above Anglo-Saxon model. In contrast, in Germany, the relation between individual employees and employers is considered to be asymmetrical. In consequence, many working conditions are not negotiable due to a strong legal protection of individuals. However, the German flavor or works legislation has as its main objective to create a balance of power between employees organized in unions and employers organized in employers associations. This allows much wider legal boundaries for collective bargaining, compared to the narrow boundaries for individual negotiations. As a condition to obtain the legal status of a trade union, employee associations need to prove that their leverage is strong enough to serve as a counterforce in negotiations with employers.
If such an employees association is competing against another union, its leverage may be questioned by unions and then evaluated in a court trial. In Germany, only very few professional associations obtained the right to negotiate salaries and working conditions for their members, notably the medical doctors association Marburger Bund and the pilots association Vereinigung Cockpit. The engineers association Verein Deutscher Ingenieure does not strive to act as a union, as it also represents the interests of engineering businesses.
Beyond the classification listed above, unions' relations with political parties vary. In many countries unions are tightly bonded, or even share leadership, with a political party intended to represent the interests of the working class. Typically this is a left-wing , socialist , or social democratic party, but many exceptions exist, including some of the aforementioned Christian unions. In Britain trade union movement's relationship with the Labour Party frayed as party leadership embarked on privatization plans at odds with what unions see as the worker's interests. However, it has strengthened once more after the Labour party's election of Ed Miliband , who beat his brother David Miliband to become leader of the party after Ed secured the trade union votes.
Additionally, in the past, there was a group known as the Conservative Trade Unionists , or CTU, formed of people who sympathized with right wing Tory policy but were Trade Unionists. Historically, the Republic of Korea has regulated collective bargaining by requiring employers to participate, but collective bargaining has only been legal if held in sessions before the lunar new year. The largest trade union federation in the world is the Brussels -based International Trade Union Confederation ITUC , which has approximately affiliated organizations in countries and territories, with a combined membership of million.
Other global trade union organizations include the World Federation of Trade Unions. National and regional trade unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups also form global union federations , such as Union Network International , the International Transport Workers Federation , the International Federation of Journalists , the International Arts and Entertainment Alliance or Public Services International. The academic literature shows substantial evidence that labor unions reduce economic inequality. Research from Norway has found that high unionization rates lead to substantial increases in firm productivity, as well as increases in workers' wages.
Milton Friedman , economist and advocate of laissez-faire capitalism , sought to show that unionization produces higher wages for the union members at the expense of fewer jobs, and that, if some industries are unionized while others are not, wages will tend to decline in non-unionized industries. In the United States, the weakening of unions has been linked to more favorable electoral outcomes for the Republican Party. Research in the United States found that American congressional representatives were more responsive to the interests of the poor in districts with higher unionization rates. In the United States, unions have been linked to lower racial resentment among whites. Several sources of current news exist about the trade union movement in the world.
These include LabourStart and the official website of the international trade union movement Global Unions. A source of international news about unions is RadioLabour which provides daily Monday to Friday news reports. Labor Notes is the largest circulation cross-union publication remaining in the United States. It reports news and analysis about union activity or problems facing the labour movement. Another source of union news is the Workers Independent News , a news organization providing radio articles to independent and syndicated radio shows in the United States.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from Labor union. Organization of workers with common goals. Not to be confused with Trade association. For other uses, see Labour Union disambiguation. Labour movement. Timeline New Unionism Proletariat. Social democracy Democratic socialism Socialism Syndicalism. Labour rights. Freedom of association Collective bargaining.
Child labour Unfree labour. Equal pay Employment discrimination. Legal working age Six-hour day Eight-hour day. Annual leave Paid time off Minimum wage. Occupational safety and health Employment protection. Trade unions. Strike action. Chronological list of strikes General strike Secondary action Overtime ban. Sitdown strike Work-to-rule Lockout.
Labour parties. Academic disciplines. Industrial relations Labour economics Labour history Labour law. Main articles: Collegium ancient Rome and Guild. Main article: List of trade unions in Belgium. Main article: List of trade unions in Canada. Main article: Trade unions in Colombia. Main article: Trade unions in Costa Rica. Main article: Trade unions in Germany. Main article: Trade unions in India. Main article: Labor unions in Japan. See also: List of trade unions in Spain. This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture.
Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources , rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. September Organized labour portal. History of Trade Unionism. Longmans and Co. London UK: Routledge. Retrieved: 1 December Retrieved 9 October ISSN Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 27 July In Sasson, Jack M. Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. ISBN Translated by Sommer, Otto. Records of the Past. Retrieved 20 June If a shipbuilder builds Liberty Fund. Translated by Harper, Robert Francis 2nd ed. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. If a boatman build Avalon Project. Translated by King, Leonard William.
If anyone hires a If a man hire Newark, NJ : Prudential Press. Retrieved 15 June JSTOR Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Live Science. Retrieved 23 June Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe. The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Through the prism of slavery : labor, capital, and world economy. OCLC The Guild and the Trade Union.
The Age. International Socialist Review. Cole Attempts at General Union. London: Longmans Green and Co. The American Economist. S2CID International Labour Organisation. Retrieved 11 May The Economist. Highbeam Research. Archived from the original on 19 October Retrieved 14 June Polish Journal of Management Studies, Vol. Retrieved 16 January Archived from the original on 19 December Hatheway Labour Exhibit Center. Retrieved 6 May Archived from the original on 27 July Retrieved 15 July CS1 maint: archived copy as title link Retrieved 14 July According to the Colombian Government, during the period —99 there were assassinations of trade union leaders and unionized workers while the National Trade Union School holds that 1 union members were assassinated.
Archived from the original on 5 May Retrieved 4 May La Nacion in Spanish. San Jose. Retrieved 7 May Worker Participation. SEEurope Network". SEEurope Network. Retrieved 15 November Pocket Lawyer. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. Your Article Library. Labor unions in Japan. Business and Labor. In William M. Tsutsui Ed. National Labour Law Profile: Japan. Japan: A Country Study. Labor Unions, Employment and Labor Relations.
Wall Street Journal. Nordic Lights. Work, Management and Welfare in Scandinavia. Stockholm: SNS pp. Accessed: 06 October No 1 August , pp. Contemporary European History. BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 December The Populist Persuasion. Retrieved: 17 November The New Republic. Two more possible trials were identified in the update than the previous version of this systematic review, but both were excluded because they were not real RCTs.
Of the 6 included trials, 5 used acupuncture while the other 1 used acupuncture combined with drugs. No trial reported on the outcomes specified for this review. Harmful side effects were not reported in any of the trials. Poor quality caused by flaws in study design or reporting including uncertain method of randomization, allocation concealment and blinding and clinical differences between trials prevented reliable conclusions about the effectiveness of acupuncture.
The authors concluded that the quality of the included trials was inadequate to allow any conclusion about the effectiveness of acupuncture. They stated that more research with high quality trials is needed. There is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture for respiratory symptoms. Gibson and colleagues noted that anecdotal evidence from both clinicians and patients suggests there may be some beneficial effect of acupuncture in the treatment of respiratory symptoms, such as bronchospasm, breathlessness and hyper-ventilation syndromes.
Some respiratory clinicians are introducing acupuncture as a treatment modality for the management of respiratory symptoms, despite the lack of available objective evidence to support this practice. The authors reviewed the available evidence on the use of acupuncture in respiratory disorders and discussed the methodological issues that are evident within this literature. In addition, they highlighted reasons for the lack of objective evidence to support acupuncture for respiratory conditions and the difficulties faced by acupuncture researchers when designing randomized, placebo-controlled trials.
The authors concluded that presently, there is insufficient evidence to support a recommendation on the use of acupuncture in respiratory disorders. There is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture for treatment of uterine fibroids. Zhang et al evaluated the benefits and harms of acupuncture in women with uterine fibroids. All RCTs comparing acupuncture management with placebo acupuncture, no management, Chinese medication, Western medication or other managements of uterine fibroids were considered for inclusion.
Acupuncture management included either traditional acupuncture or contemporary acupuncture, regardless of the source of stimulation e. Acupuncture management without needling was excluded. Two review authors assessed trial risk of bias according to their a priori criteria. No trials were included in this version of the review, therefore no data was collected. No randomized double-blind controlled trials met the inclusion criteria. The authors concluded that the effectiveness of acupuncture for the management of uterine fibroids remains uncertain.
They stated that more evidence is needed to establish the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for uterine fibroids. There is a continued need for well-designed RCTs with long-term follow-up. In a randomized, patient-assessor blinded, sham-acupuncture, controlled trial, Shin et al assessed the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for ocular symptoms, tear film stability and tear secretion in dry eye patients. A total of 42 subjects with defined moderate to severe dry eye underwent acupuncture treatment 3 times a week for 3 weeks.
In addition, adverse events were recorded. No adverse events were reported during this trial. The authors concluded that both types of acupuncture improved signs and symptoms in dry-eye patients after a 4-week treatment. However, verum acupuncture did not result in better outcomes than sham acupuncture. Lee and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment option for treating the condition of dry eye.
These investigators searched the literature using 14 databases from their inceptions to December 3, , without language restrictions. They included RCTs comparing acupuncture with conventional treatment. Their risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane criteria. A total of 6 RCTs met all the inclusion criteria. The other 3 RCTs compared the effects of acupuncture plus artificial tears with artificial tears alone — 2 of these studies failed to show significant effects of acupuncture, while 1 reported significant effects. For Schirmer test scores and frequency of artificial tear usage, 2 RCTs reported superior effects of acupuncture plus artificial tears, while 1 RCT failed to do so. The authors concluded that these findings provide limited evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating dry eye.
However, the total number of RCTs, the total sample size and the methodological quality were too low to draw firm conclusions. In a prospective, randomized, controlled, cross-over trial, Lam et al evaluated the safety and adjunctive effect of acupuncture added to refractive correction for anisometropic amblyopia in younger children. Main outcome measures were BCVA in the amblyopic eye at 15, 30, and 60 weeks. The mean baseline BCVA in the amblyopic eye was 0. After 15 weeks of treatment, the BCVA had improved by a mean of 2. The mean difference in BCVA between groups was 0. BCVA of less than or equal to 0.
After the regimens were crossed-over at 30 weeks, group 1 had a mean of 1. The proportions of responders, resolution, and participants achieving a BCVA of less than or equal to 0. After completion of acupuncture, only 1 participant had greater than 1 line of VA decrease to 60 weeks. Acupuncture was well-tolerated by all children, and no severe adverse effect was encountered. The authors concluded that acupuncture is a potentially useful complementary treatment modality that may provide sustainable adjunctive effect to refractive correction for anisometropic amblyopia in young children. They stated that acupuncture has good potential to become a complimentary therapeutic modality for amblyopia, and further large-scale studies seem warranted.
In a Cochrane review, Cheuk et al examined the effectiveness of acupuncture for people with autism spectrum disorders ASD in improving core autistic features, as well as communication, cognition, overall functioning and quality of life, and established if it has any adverse effects. They also searched AMED February 26, and Dissertation Abstracts International March 3, , but these were no longer available to the authors or editorial base at the date of the most recent search.
They included studies comparing an acupuncture group with at least one control group that used no treatment, placebo or sham acupuncture treatment in people with ASD. They excluded trials that compared different forms of acupuncture or compared acupuncture with another treatment. Two review authors independently extracted trial data and assessed the risk of bias in the trials. They used relative risk RR for dichotomous data and mean difference MD for continuous data. The authors included 10 trials that involved children with ASD. The age range was 3 to 18 years and the treatment duration ranged from 4 weeks to 9 months. The studies were carried out in Hong Kong, mainland China and Egypt. Two trials compared needle acupuncture with sham acupuncture and found no difference in the primary outcome of core autistic features RFRLRS total score: MD 0.
Six trials compared needle acupuncture plus conventional treatment with conventional treatment alone. The trials used different primary outcome measures and most could not demonstrate effectiveness of acupuncture in improving core autistic features in general, though 1 trial reported patients in the acupuncture group were more likely to have improvement on the Autism Behavior Checklist RR 1. There was no evidence that acupuncture was effective for the secondary outcome of communication and linguistic ability, though there seemed to be some benefit for the secondary outcomes of cognitive function and global functioning. Two trials compared acupressure plus conventional treatment with conventional treatment alone and did not report on the primary outcome.
Individual study results suggested there may be some benefit from acupressure for certain aspects of the secondary outcomes of communication and linguistic ability, cognitive function and global functioning. Four trials reported some adverse effects, though there was little quantitative information, and at times both intervention and control groups experienced them.
Adverse effects included bleeding, crying due to fear or pain, irritability, sleep disturbance and increased hyperactivity. None of the trials reported on quality of life. There are a number of problems with the evidence base: the trials were few in number and included only children; 6 of the trials were at high-risk of bias; they were heterogeneous in terms of participants and intervention; they were of short duration and follow-up; they reported inconsistent and imprecise results, and, due to carrying out large numbers of analyses, they were at risk of false positivity. The authors concluded that current evidence does not support the use of acupuncture for treatment of ASD.
There is no conclusive evidence that acupuncture is effective for treatment of ASD in children and no RCTs have been carried out with adults. They stated that further high quality trials of larger size and longer follow-up are needed. In a Cochrane review, Wei et al evaluated the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture in slowing the progression of myopia in children and adolescents. There were no date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials.
These researchers included RCTs that included any type of acupuncture treatment for myopia in children and adolescents. Two authors independently evaluated the search results according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two authors extracted and assessed data independently. They contacted the study investigator for missing data. The authors included 2 RCTs conducted in Taiwan with a total of participants. They did not perform a meta-analysis as the trials were assessing different outcomes.
Neither trial met the pre-defined primary outcome criteria of myopia progression defined as 1 diopter mean change. Only 1 trial reported the changes of axial length without non-significant difference among groups and both trials reported that several children experienced mild pain during acupuncture stimulation. Two trials were included in this review but no conclusions can be drawn for the benefit of co-acupressure for slowing progress of myopia in children. The authors concluded that further evidence in the form of RCTs are needed before any recommendations can be made for the use of acupuncture treatment in clinical use.
These trials should compare acupuncture to placebo and have large sample sizes. Other types of acupuncture such as auricular acupuncture should be explored further as well as compliance with treatment for at least 6 months or longer. Axial length elongation of the eye should be investigated for at least 1 year. Refractory dyspnea is a common and difficult symptom to treat in patients with advanced COPD. There are many questions concerning optimal management and, specifically, whether various therapies are effective in this setting. These investigators addressed these important clinical issues using an evidence-based systematic review process led by a representative inter-professional panel of experts. The evidence supported the benefits of oral opioids, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, chest wall vibration, walking aids and pursed-lip breathing in the management of dyspnea in the individual patient with advanced COPD.
Oxygen is recommended for COPD patients with resting hypoxemia, but its use for the targeted management of dyspnea in this setting should be reserved for patients who receive symptomatic benefit. There is insufficient evidence to support the routine use of anxiolytic medications, nebulized opioids, acupuncture, acupressure, distractive auditory stimuli music , relaxation, hand-held fans, counseling programs or psychotherapy. There is also no evidence to support the use of supplemental oxygen to reduce dyspnea in non-hypoxemic patients with advanced COPD. Williams et al stated that acne is a chronic inflammatory disease of the pilo-sebaceous unit resulting from androgen-induced increased sebum production, altered keratinization, inflammation, and bacterial colonization of hair follicles on the face, neck, chest, and back by Propionibacterium acnes.
Although early colonization with P acnes and family history might have important roles in the disease, exactly what triggers acne and how treatment affects the course of the disease remain unclear. Other factors such as diet have been implicated, but not proven. Acne can persist into adulthood, with detrimental effects on self-esteem. There is no ideal treatment for acne, although a suitable regimen for reducing lesions can be found for most patients. Good quality evidence on comparative effectiveness of common topical and systemic acne therapies is scarce. Topical therapies including benzoyl peroxide, retinoids, and antibiotics when used in combination usually improve control of mild to moderate acne.
Treatment with combined oral contraceptives can help women with acne. Patients with more severe inflammatory acne usually need oral antibiotics combined with topical benzoyl peroxide to decrease antibiotic-resistant organisms. Oral isotretinoin is the most effective therapy and is used early in severe disease, although its use is limited by teratogenicity and other side-effects. Availability, adverse effects, and cost, limit the use of photodynamic therapy. New research is needed into the therapeutic comparative effectiveness and safety of the many products available, and to better understand the natural history, subtypes, and triggers of acne.
Moreover, the authors stated that complementary and alternative medicine including acupuncture can not be recommended for the treatment of acne because it is not supported by good evidence. Yan et al noted that burning mouth syndrome BMS is a common chronic pain condition that lacks a satisfactory treatment approach. These researchers examined the effects of acupuncture or acupoint injection on the management of BMS and evaluated the evidence supporting the use of acupuncture therapy for BMS in clinical practice. Articles were screened, and the quality of the included trials was assessed independently by 2 reviewers.
After screening, 9 studies with randomized patients were included in this review. All 9 articles were published in Chinese and were clinical trial studies with a Jadad score of less than 3. The authors concluded that in light of the positive outcomes reported, the use of acupuncture therapy for BMS patients warrants further research. Bo and colleagues evaluated the reports' qualities which are about RCTs of acupuncture treatment on diabetic peripheral neuropathy DPN. A total of 8 databases including The Cochrane Library to Sept. Hand-search for further references was conducted. Language was limited to Chinese and English. No article gave the description of the mechanism of allocation concealment, no experiment applied the method of blinding.
Only 1 article 1. No article mentioned the number of cases lost or eliminated. During 1 experiment, acupuncture syncope led to temporal interruption of the therapy. Two articles 2. None of articles reported the base of calculation of sample size, or has any analysis about the metaphase of an experiment or an explanation of its interruption. One 1. The authors concluded that the quality of the reports on RCTs of acupuncture for diabetic peripheral neuropathy is moderate to low. The research team reviewed a total of 13 studies involving 1, participants with facial spasm.
Researchers in China had conducted all studies, and most studies were poor in methodological quality. All studies reported that acupuncture was superior to other treatments, including carbamazepine, mecobalamin, and massage, and the meta-analysis on these low-quality studies yielded similar results. The authors concluded that present trials evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture in treatment of facial spasm are mostly poor in methodological quality.
These studies showed that acupuncture was superior to other treatments for facial spasm; however, in its meta-analysis, the research team could not draw an affirmative conclusion as to the benefits of acupuncture due to the poor methodological quality and localized population of the included trials. The authors concluded that the field needs large international, well-conducted RCTs.
In a Cochrane review, He and colleagues evaluated the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for children with mumps. They also hand-searched a number of journals from first issue to current issue. These researchers included RCTs comparing acupuncture with placebo acupuncture, no management, Chinese medication, Western medication or other treatments for mumps. Acupuncture included either traditional acupuncture or contemporary acupuncture, regardless of the source of stimulation body, electro, scalp, fire, hand, fine needle, moxibustion.
Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed the quality of included studies. Only 1 study with participants met the inclusion criteria. There were a total of participants in the acupuncture group, of which recovered, with their temperature returning back to normal and no swelling or pain of the parotid gland; the condition of 14 participants improved, with a drop in temperature and alleviation of swelling or pain of the parotid gland.
There were participants in the Western medicine group, of which 56 recovered and the condition of 63 improved. The acupuncture group had a higher recovery rate than the control group. The relative RR of recovery was 1. However, the acupuncture group had a longer time to cure than the control group. The mean was 4. There was a potential risk of bias in the study because of low methodological quality. The authors concluded that they could not reach any confident conclusions about the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture based on 1 study. They stated that more high-quality research is needed. Zhang et al systematically examined published reviews and meta-analyses in order to determine if and when acupuncture is an effective treatment for stroke and stroke-related disorders.
These investigators also hoped to identify the best directions for future research in this area. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of RCTs and quasi-RCTs evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat stroke or stroke-related conditions were included. Two authors independently assessed the compliance of studies with eligibility criteria, and extracted data from included studies. The quality of systematic reviews was assessed according to the Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire. A total of 24 systematic reviews were included, of which 4 Acupuncture was analyzed as an acute stroke intervention in 3 reviews In contrast, reviews in which the outcome was improvement in global neurological deficit scores or performance on the video-fluoroscopic swallowing study test or water-swallowing test often reported that acupuncture was superior to control treatment.
The quality of 10 reviews was "poor", 6 reviews were "moderate" and 8 were "good". The authors concluded that the available evidence suggests that acupuncture may be effective for treating post-stroke neurological impairment and dysfunction such as dysphagia, although these reported benefits should be verified in large, well-controlled studies.
On the other hand, the available evidence does not clearly indicate that acupuncture can help prevent post-stroke death or disability, or ameliorate other aspects of stroke recovery, such as post-stroke motor dysfunction. These findings suggest that researchers should focus on the potential application of acupuncture to treat post-stroke neurological impairment and dysfunction and on the development of more precise tools to assess these improvements after stroke. Zeng and associates evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue CRF.
Randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for the treatment of CRF were considered for inclusion. A total of 7 RCTs were included for meta-analysis, involving a total of subjects. The authors concluded that there were 4 sets of comparison for the effectiveness of acupuncture for CRF; statistical pooling of the reduction in CRF from baseline to follow-up showed in favor of acupuncture. However, 3 sets of comparison for the pooled estimates of effect sizes had no statistical significance. Although one set of comparison acupuncture plus education interventions versus usual care had statistically significant differences, it is unclear whether this pooled positive outcome is attributable to the effects of acupuncture or to the education intervention.
In addition, the duration of follow-up in these included trials was up to 10 weeks, and some RCTs had methodological flaws. They stated that further rigorously designed RCTs adhering to acceptable standards of trial methodology are needed to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture and its long-term effects on CRF. Cao and colleagues evaluated the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment VMCI. A total of 7 electronic databases were searched for RCTs that investigated the effects of acupuncture compared with no treatment, placebo or conventional therapies on cognitive function or other clinical outcomes in patients with VMCI.
The quality of the trials selected was evaluated according to the "risk of bias" assessment provided by the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. RevMan V. A total of 12 trials with participants were included. Meta-analysis showed acupuncture in conjunction with other therapies could significantly improve Mini-Mental State Examination scores mean difference 1. No included trials mentioned any adverse events of the treatment. The authors concluded that the current clinical evidence is not of sufficient quality for wider application of acupuncture to be recommended for the treatment of VMCI; they stated that further large, rigorously designed trials are warranted.
Yang et al conducted a systematic review of RCTs to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture for diabetic gastroparesis DGP. Eligible RCTs designed to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture in improving dyspeptic symptoms and gastric emptying in DGP were selected for analysis. Risk of bias, study design and outcomes were extracted from trials. Relative risk RR was calculated for dichotomous data. Mean difference MD and standardized mean difference SMD were selected for continuous data to pool the overall effect. These investigators searched studies, among which 14 RCTs were considered eligible. Overall, acupuncture treatment had a high response rate than controls RR, 1. There was no difference in solid gastric emptying between acupuncture and control.
Acupuncture improved single dyspeptic symptom such as nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite and stomach fullness. The majority of the RCTs reported positive effect of acupuncture in improving dyspeptic symptoms. The authors concluded that the results suggested that acupuncture might be effective to improve dyspeptic symptoms in DGP, while a definite conclusion about whether acupuncture was effective for DGP could not be drawn due to the low quality of trials and possibility of publication bias. They stated that further large-scale, high-quality RCTs are needed to validate this claim and translate this result to clinical practice.
In a prospective, blinding-validated, randomized controlled multi-center trial, Skjeie et al tested the hypothesis that acupuncture treatment has a clinically relevant effect for infantile colic. Research assistants and parents were blinded. Intervention was 3 days of bilateral needling of the acupuncture point ST36, with no treatment as control. A total of patients were recruited; 23 patients were excluded, and 90 randomized; 79 diaries and 84 interviews were analyzed.
Main outcome measures were difference in changes in crying time during the trial period between the intervention and control group. This was not considered clinically relevant, according to protocol. The authors concluded that this trial of acupuncture treatment for infantile colic showed no statistically significant or clinically relevant effect; they suggested that acupuncture for infantile colic should be restricted to clinical trials.
Zhang et al analyzed the effectiveness of acupoint application therapy for infantile diarrhea. The authors of the present paper did a literature retrieval using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure CNKI database, Chinese bio-medical database and Wanfang database covering the period of January 1, to June 30, , and made a systemic evaluation on the retrieved RCTs of acupoint application therapy for infantile diarrhea using Cochrane system evaluation method. Trial quality was assessed using the Jadad score that evaluates the randomization process, blinding, and the description of withdrawals or drop-outs. The RevMan 5. A total of 16 papers 2, patients were included in the meta-analysis.
Statistical difference indicates a better therapeutic effect of acupoint application group than the control group, providing evidence in favor of acupoint application therapy for infantile diarrhea. Funnel chart displays that the researched object distribution is symmetric, being smaller in the bias. But the potential publication bias still possibly exists. The authors concluded that acupoint application therapy for infantile diarrhea has some advantages, which needs further confirmation due to lower quality of the collected literatures. They stated that larger sample, high quality RCTs are highly recommended.
Zhu and colleagues examined the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for pain in endometriosis. Randomized single or double-blind controlled trials enrolling women of reproductive age with a laparoscopically confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis and comparing acupuncture body, scalp or auricular to either placebo or sham, no treatment, conventional therapies or Chinese herbal medicine were selected for analysis. Three authors independently assessed risk of bias and extracted data; they contacted study authors for additional information. Meta-analyses were not performed as only 1 study was included. The primary outcome measure was decrease in pain from endometriosis. Secondary outcome measures included improvement in quality of life scores, pregnancy rate, adverse effects and rate of endometriosis recurrence.
A total of 24 studies were identified that involved acupuncture for endometriosis; however only 1 trial, enrolling 67 participants, met all the inclusion criteria. The single included trial defined pain scores and cure rates according to the Guideline for Clinical Research on New Chinese Medicine. Dysmenorrhea scores were lower in the acupuncture group mean difference The total effective rate "cured", "significantly effective" or "effective" for auricular acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine was The improvement rate did not differ significantly between auricular acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine for cases of mild-to-moderate dysmenorrhea, whereas auricular acupuncture did significantly reduce pain in cases of severe dysmenorrhea.
Data were not available for secondary outcomes measures. The authors concluded that the evidence to support the effectiveness of acupuncture for pain in endometriosis is limited, based on the results of only a single study that was included in this review. This review highlighted the necessity for developing future studies that are well-designed, double-blinded, RCTs that assess various types of acupuncture in comparison to conventional therapies.
Acupuncture point injection also known as acupoint injection therapy, biopuncture entails the injection of small amounts of saline or other substances e. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of this approach. In a Cochrane review, Green et al evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of adults with lateral elbow pain with respect to pain reduction, improvement in function, grip strength and adverse effects.
Identified keywords and authors were searched in an effort to retrieve as many trials as possible. Two independent reviewers assessed all identified trials against pre-determined inclusion criteria. Randomized and pseudo-randomized trials in all languages were included in the review provided they were testing acupuncture compared to placebo or another intervention in adults with lateral elbow pain tennis elbow. Outcomes of interest were pain, function, disability, quality of life, strength, participant satisfaction with treatment and adverse effect.
For continuous variables means and standard deviations were extracted or imputed to allow the analysis of weighted mean difference, while for binary data numbers of events and total population were analyzed and interpreted as relative risks. Trial results were combined only in the absence of clinical and statistical heterogeneity. A total of 4 small RCTs were included but due to flaws in study designs particularly small populations, uncertain allocation concealment and substantial loss to follow-up and clinical differences between trials, data from trials could not be combined in a meta-analysis. No significant differences were found in the longer term after 3 or 12 months. A RCT of laser acupuncture versus placebo demonstrated no differences between laser acupuncture and placebo with respect to overall benefit Haker b.
A 4th RCT included trial published in Chinese demonstrated no difference between vitamin B12 injection plus acupuncture, and vitamin B12 injection alone Wang The authors concluded that there is insufficient evidence to either support or refute the use of acupuncture either needle or laser in the treatment of lateral elbow pain. This review has demonstrated needle acupuncture to be of short-term benefit with respect to pain, but this finding is based on the results of 2 small trials, the results of which were not able to be combined in meta-analysis.
No benefit lasting more than 24 hours following treatment has been demonstrated. No trial assessed or commented on potential adverse effect. They stated that further trials, utilizing appropriate methods and adequate sample sizes, are needed before conclusions can be drawn regarding the effect of acupuncture on tennis elbow. In a prospective, observational, pilot study, Wang et al examined the effects of vitamin K acupuncture point injection on menstrual pain in young women aged 14 to 25 from different countries and cultural backgrounds who have had unmitigated severe primary dysmenorrhea for 6 months or more.
All subjects were treated with bilateral acupuncture point injection of vitamin K on the first or second day of menstrual pain. Pain intensity, total duration, and average intensity of menstrual distress, hours in bed, normal daily activity restrictions, and numbers of analgesic tablets taken to relieve pain were recorded before the treatment and for 4 subsequent menstrual cycles. There were no adverse events. Some women experienced mild, self-limited pain at the injection site. The authors concluded that acupuncture point injection with vitamin K alleviated acute menstrual pain, and relief extended through the non-treatment follow-up cycles in this uncontrolled pilot study conducted in 2 countries.
They stated that further investigation employing controlled experimental designs is warranted. Liang et al reported the findings of 2 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS who were treated with 4 weeks of acupuncture injection point therapy using Enercel. These patients were administered 0. Patient 1 exhibited flaccid paralysis of all 4 extremities and impaired speech and swallowing. However, she did not continue to receive the Enercel acupoint injections, and she subsequently demonstrated a slow, progressive loss of neurological function during the ensuing 3 months, as shown on follow-up examinations.
Patient 2 had significantly impaired speech and mild motor loss in the upper extremities and the left leg. After 4 weeks of treatment, his voice had significantly improved to the point where his speech was understandable and his motor functions had returned to normal. He continued receiving Enercel acupoint injections during the 3-month follow-up period and his clinical improvements were maintained. Thus, these 2 patients with ALS showed clinical improvements after 4 weeks of Enercel acupoint injection therapy.
Follow-up data suggested that ongoing therapy may be necessary in order to maintain these positive effects. The authors concluded that the findings of this preliminary study merits further study and confirmation. In a Cochrane review, Paley et al evaluated effectiveness of acupuncture for relief of cancer-related pain in adults. Randomized controlled trials evaluating any type of invasive acupuncture for pain directly related to cancer in adults of 18 years or over were selected for analysis.
It was planned to pool data to provide an overall measure of effect and to calculate the number needed to treat to benefit, but this was not possible due to heterogeneity. Two review authors independently extracted data adding it to data extraction sheets. Quality scores were given to studies. Data sheets were compared and discussed with a third review author who acted as arbiter. A total of 3 RCTs participants were included. One high-quality study investigated the effect of auricular acupuncture compared with auricular acupuncture at "placebo" points and with non-invasive vaccaria ear seeds attached at "placebo" points.
Participants in 2 acupuncture groups were blinded but blinding wasn't possible in the ear seeds group because seeds were attached using tape. This may have biased results in favor of acupuncture groups. Participants in the real acupuncture group had lower pain scores at 2-month follow-up than either the placebo or ear seeds group. There was high-risk of bias in 2 studies because of low methodological quality. One study comparing acupuncture with medication concluded that both methods were effective in controlling pain, although acupuncture was the most effective. The second study compared acupuncture, point-injection and medication in participants with stomach cancer.
Long-term pain relief was reported for both acupuncture and point-injection compared with medication during the last 10 days of treatment. Although both studies have positive results in favor of acupuncture, they should be viewed with caution due to methodological limitations, small sample sizes, poor reporting and inadequate analysis. The authors concluded that there is insufficient evidence to judge whether acupuncture is effective in treating cancer-related pain in adults. In a pilot study, park et al examined the possibility of Carthami-Semen CS, Safflower seed acupuncture point injection as a new promising treatment for chronic daily headache CDH.
A total of 40 subjects with CDH were recruited and randomized to a CS acupuncture point injection group or a normal saline NS acupuncture point injection group. Secondary outcome measures were the changes in the number of headache-free days and health status as assessed with the Short Form 36 Health Survey SF HIT scores decreased by Headache-free days increased by There were significant increases in SF scores compared with baseline in both groups, but the mean improvement was greater in the CS acupuncture point injection group. No serious adverse events were reported. The authors stated that these findings suggested that the CS acupuncture point injection could be a new safe and promising treatment for CDH.
They stated that a larger and long-term follow-up trial is needed to determine more definitely the efficacy of CS acupuncture point injection and to elucidate how long the effect lasts. Zhang et al examined the effects of acupoint injection on cervical spondylosis. The selected literatures were summarized and classified from 3 aspects of acupoints selection, medication selection and manipulations. The medications contain simple Chinese herbs e. Disposable syringes were used for injection equipment. The authors stated that while acupoint injection in treating cervical spondylosis is effective, however, mechanism studies are still deficient since most of the researches focused on clinical observation.
They concluded that manipulation of acupoint injection is not standardized; laws of clinical effect are unclear. Thus, they stated that "the above mentioned defects are still remained for further improvement". Bae et al conducted a meta-analysis of an array of appropriate studies to evaluate the pre-operative anxiolytic efficacy of acupuncture therapy. In the meta-analysis, data were included from RCT studies in which groups receiving pre-operative acupuncture treatment were compared with control groups receiving a placebo for anxiety.
The authors concluded that acupuncture therapy aiming at reducing pre-operative anxiety has a statistically significant effect relative to placebo or non-treatment conditions. They stated that well-designed and rigorous studies that employ large sample sizes are needed to corroborate this finding. Ryu et al stated that to explore the pain mechanism, numerous animal models have been developed to simulate specific human pain conditions, including cancer-induced bone pain CIBP.
In this study, these researchers analyzed the current research methodology of acupuncture for the treatment of CIBP. They selected articles that described cancer pain in animal models. These investigators analyzed the methods used to induce cancer pain and the outcome measures used to assess the effects of acupuncture on CIBP in animal models. They reviewed articles that met their inclusion criteria. Injection of mammary cancer cells into the cavity of the tibia was the most frequently used method for inducing CIBP in the animal models. Among the 8 selected studies, 5 demonstrated the effects of electroacupuncture on CIBP. The effects of acupuncture were assessed by measuring pain-related behavior. The authors concluded that future researches will be needed to ascertain the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating CIBP and to explore the specific mechanism of CIBP in animal models.
In a Cochrane review, Shen et al examined the effects of acupuncture, alone or in combination treatments compared with placebo or no treatment or any other treatments for people with schizophrenia or related psychoses. They also inspected references of identified studies and contacted relevant authors for additional information. They included all relevant RCTs involving people with schizophrenia-like illnesses, comparing acupuncture added to standard dose anti-psychotics with standard dose anti-psychotics alone, acupuncture added to low dose anti-psychotics with standard dose anti-psychotics, acupuncture with anti-psychotics, acupuncture added to Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM drug with TCM drug, acupuncture with TCM drug, electric acupuncture convulsive therapy with electroconvulsive therapy.
These researchers reliably extracted data from all included studies, discussed any disagreement, documented decisions and contacted authors of studies when necessary. For homogeneous data they used fixed-effect model. After an update search in the review included 30 studies testing different forms of acupuncture across 6 different comparisons. All studies were at moderate risk of bias. If anything, adverse effects were less for the acupuncture group e. Again, mental state findings were mostly consistent with the latter. When acupuncture was compared with anti-psychotic drugs of known efficacy in standard doses, there were equivocal data for outcomes such as "not improved" using different global state criteria. Attrition in all studies was minimal. No studies reported death, engagement with services, satisfaction with treatment, quality of life, or economic outcomes.
The authors concluded that limited evidence suggested that acupuncture may have some anti-psychotic effects as measured on global and mental state with few adverse effects. They stated that better designed large studies are needed to fully and fairly test the effects of acupuncture for people with schizophrenia. Park et al reviewed the available literature on the use of acupuncture as a treatment for spasticity in patients with stroke. Two reviewers independently extracted data on study characteristics, patient characteristics, and spasticity outcomes. A total of 8 trials with patients met all the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality of all evaluated trials was considered inadequate.
The authors concluded that the effect of acupuncture for spasticity in patients with stroke remains uncertain, primarily because of the poor quality of the available studies. They stated that larger and more methodologically sound trials are needed to confirm or refute any effect of acupuncture as a treatment for spasticity after stroke. Li et al noted that spontaneous intra-cerebral hemorrhage ICH is the most devastating subtype of stroke, but there is currently no evidence-based treatment strategy.
Acupuncture is a well-known traditional Chinese therapy for stroke-induced disability, and GV20 is the commonly used acupuncture point. These researchers evaluated the effectiveness of GVbased acupuncture in animal models of acute ICH. Outcome measures were neurological deficit scores and brain water content. All the data were analyzed using RevMan V. A total of 19 studies were identified describing procedures involving 1, animals. The quality score of the studies ranged from 3 to 6, with a mean of 4. The global estimate of the effect of GVbased acupuncture was 0.
The authors concluded that these findings showed the possible efficacy of GVbased acupuncture in animal models of acute ICH, suggesting it as a candidate therapy for acute ICH. Ji and colleagues noted that inflammatory bowel diseases IBD are recurrent and refractory; it includes Crohn's disease CD and ulcerative colitis UC. Clinical researches about acupuncture and moxibustion treatments for IBD are increasing, while systematic reviews about their effectiveness remains in a shortage.
These investigators evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion for IBD. A total of 7 significant databases both in and abroad were searched for RCTs that compared acupuncture and moxibustion as the main intervention to pharmacotherapy in treating IBD. A meta-analysis was performed. A total of 43 RCTs were included. A meta-analysis of the 10 trials indicated that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy was superior to oral SASP. However, given the limitations of this systematic review and the included literature, definitive conclusions regarding the exact effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for IBD cannot be drawn.
They stated that extant RCTs still cannot provide sufficient evidence and multi-center, double-blind RCTs with large sample sizes are needed to provide higher-quality evidence. Kim et al evaluated the current evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture for post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD in the form of a systematic review. These researchers performed a systematic literature search in 23 electronic databases. Grey literature was also searched. The key search terms were "acupuncture" and "PTSD". No language restrictions were imposed. They included all RCTs or prospective clinical trials that evaluated acupuncture and its variants against a wait-list, sham acupuncture, conventional therapy control for PTSD, or without control.
One high-quality RCT reported that acupuncture was superior to wait-list control and therapeutic effects of acupuncture and cognitive-behavioral therapy CBT were similar based on the effect sizes. A meta-analysis of acupuncture plus moxibustion versus SSRI favored acupuncture plus moxibustion in 3 outcomes. The authors concluded that this systematic review and meta-analysis suggested that the evidence of effectiveness of acupuncture for PTSD is encouraging but not cogent.
They stated that further qualified trials are needed to confirm whether acupuncture is effective for PTSD. Yang et al stated that In recent years, acupuncture has increasingly being integrated into pediatric health care. It was used on approximately , children 0. The authors updated the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture for children and evaluated the methodological qualities of these studies to improve future research in this area. They included 24 systematic reviews, comprising RCTs with 12, participants. The effectiveness of acupuncture for 5 diseases cerebral palsy CP , nocturnal enuresis NE , tic disorders, amblyopia, and pain reduction is promising. Acupuncture is not effective for epilepsy.
Only 6 reviews reported adverse events AEs and no fatal side effects were reported. The authors concluded that the effectiveness of acupuncture for some diseases is promising and there have been no fatal side effects reported. They stated that further high-quality studies are justified, with 5 diseases in particular as research priorities. Lv and colleagues stated that NE is recognized as a widespread health problem in young children and adolescents. Clinical researches about acupuncture therapy for NE are increasing, while systematic reviews assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy are still lacking.
These researchers evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy for NE. A comprehensive literature search of 8 databases was performed up to June ; RCTs which compared acupuncture therapy and placebo treatment or pharmacological therapy were identified. A meta-analysis was conducted. This review included 21 RCTs and a total of 1, subjects. The overall methodological qualities were low. The results of meta-analysis showed that acupuncture therapy was more effective for clinical effectiveness when compared with placebo or pharmacological treatment; AEs associated with acupuncture therapy were not documented. The authors concluded that based on the findings of this study, they cautiously suggested that acupuncture therapy could improve the clinical effectiveness.
However, they stated that the beneficial effect of acupuncture might be over-stated due to low methodological qualities; rigorous high quality RCTs are needed. Yu and colleagues noted that pruritus is a sensitive state that provokes the desire to scratch. It is not only a common symptom of skin diseases but it also occurs in some systemic diseases. Clinical studies on the effectiveness of the acupuncture therapy in alleviating itch are increasing, while systematic reviews assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy are still lacking.
These investigators evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy for pruritis. A comprehensive literature search of 8 databases was performed up to June , and RCTs that compared acupuncture therapy and placebo acupuncture or no treatment group were identified. Accordingly, a meta-analysis was conducted. This review included 3 articles of RCTs from a total of 2, articles. The results of the meta-analysis showed that acupuncture therapy was effective to alleviate pruritis compared with placebo acupuncture and no treatment group.
The authors concluded that based on the findings of this systematic review, they cautiously suggested that acupuncture therapy could improve the clinical effectiveness of pruritis. However, they stated that this conclusion needs more studies on various ethnic samples to confirm the final conclusion. Salehi and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture for treatment of hot flash in women with breast cancer. The aspects considered in this study included searching for 12 data bases until April and consulting reference lists of reviews and related articles.
Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe. Use of resources was Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working every 3 months. Graduates are qualified for jobs in credit risk evaluation, quantitative security selection, risk measurement and mitigation, and cash management. Bae et al Essay On Fingerprint Development a meta-analysis of an array of appropriate studies to evaluate Differences Between Whitman And Langston Hughes pre-operative anxiolytic Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working of acupuncture Child Labor In The Victorian Era Objections to these arguments came largely from wealthy land Explain The Important Features Of Inter-Professional Working in rural areas.