Reduced Need for Rescue Antiemetics and Improved Capacity to Eat in Patients Receiving Acupuncture Compared to Patients Receiving Sham Acupuncture or Standard Care during Radiotherapy

Table 3

Consumption of medications for emesis in patients treated with verum acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or standard care during radiotherapy.

Variable	Verum acupuncture group	Sham acupuncture group	Standard care group
Consumption of antiemetic types at the cross-sectional comparison (%) of patients consuming a variety of types of antiemetics
Serotonin-receptor antagonists	4 (4)	5 (5)	1 (2)
Dopamine-receptor antagonists	7 (8)	5 (5)	18 (29)
Corticosteroids	3 (3)	4 (4)	0 (0)
Other	8 (9)	9 (9)	2 (3)
No antiemetics	67 (75)	72 (81)	42 (68)
Consumption of antiemetic types within the entire radiotherapy period (%) of patients consuming a variety of types of antiemetics at least once,; mean number days of consumption standard deviation
Serotonin-receptor antagonists	21 (21); 8.7 8.4	23 (23); 7.8 6.9	—
Dopamine-receptor antagonists	24 (24); 8.8 9.7	21 (21); 7.5 7.4	—
Corticosteroids	13 (13); 12.0 6.0	25 (25); 10.6 8.2	—
Other	12 (12); 11.6 11.6	9 (9); 8.0 10.6	—
No antiemetics	58 (58)	63 (63)	—

Numbers () of patients answering the questions are presented. was 89 of the 100 verum acupuncture treated patients and 95 of the 100 sham acupuncture treated patients at the cross-sectional comparison (after receiving mean 27 Gray), since 11 of the acupuncture treated and 5 of the sham treated patients had finished radiotherapy due to the individual length of therapy. Md = median. types were antihistamines, omeprazole, or medications for anxiety, used against emesis. patients could consume more than one type of antiemetics. — = consumption was not registered longitudinally in the standard care group.