Pharmacoacupuncture for Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 1

Summary of included randomized controlled studies.

First author, year	Total numbers of patients: pharmacoacupuncture group/control group	Groups		Main outcomes; (Pharmacoacupuncture/control)	Adverse event
		Pharmacoacupuncture	Control group		Types of AEs in pharmacoacupuncture group (=)/control group (=)
		PD history (yrs)	PD history (yrs)
		Protocol	Protocol
Cho, 2012	22: 13/9	5.0 (median)	5.0 (median)	After 8 weeks: Total UPDRS; 24.0 (median, 17.5, 35.0)/38.0 (17.5, 53.5)	1 (); Itching in 1 case/0 ()
		Bee venom (twice a week for 8 weeks (16 total sessions)); on bilateral GB20, LI11, GB34, ST36, LR3	No treatment
		+ Antiparkinsonian medication	+ Antiparkinsonian medication	calculated by Tukey’s HSD post hoc test
Liu, 2015	79: 40/39	5.8 ± 2.5	6.0 ± 3.1	After 8 weeks: TER (%); 90.0/84.6; -RR 1.06,; 95% CI [0.90, 1.26]	No report
		Kakkonein (3 times a week for 8 weeks (24 total sessions)) on bilateral GB20; + Madopar	No treatment
			+ Madopar
Xu, 2002	33: 23/10	6.3 ± 2.0; Mailuoning (7 times a week for 15 days (15 total sessions)) on bilateral ST36, GB34	6.7 ± 1.8; No treatment	After 15 days: Modified Webster Symptom Scores; 13.26 ± 4.00/20.20 ± 5.75; -MD −6.94,; 95% CI [−10.86, −3.02]	No report

PD: Parkinson’s disease; AEs: adverse events; UPDRS: Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale; TER: total effective rate; RR: risk ratio; CI: confidence interval; MD: mean difference.