Claims acupuncture 'staves off dementia' are missing the point

Conclusion This review aimed to gather evidence for the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture to treat mild cognitive impairment. It found some evidence that acupuncture may have some efficacy, but there are many important cautions to this research: All trials compared acupuncture with nimodipine, which is not licensed for this use in the UK. Since there are no treatments or interventions licensed in the UK to prevent progression of MCI, it's hard to draw any comparisons or implications from such findings. There are only five relatively small studies, all of which seem to be Chinese populations. We don't know that study populations or acupuncture practices could be applied to the UK. The trials overall seem to be of poor quality. Only one of the five trials used an acceptable method of randomisation. In the remaining ones it wasn't clear that they were properly randomised. No trials used a placebo/sham acupuncture intervention, and it had to be assumed that both participants and assessors were aware of the treatment that had been given. All of these things may introduce bias. The trials have only assessed changes in cognitive test scores, such as the mental state score. They've not actually looked at progression to diagnosed dementia as an outcome. The duration of acupuncture was 8 to 12 weeks, but we can't say anything from this on how long acupuncture courses would have to be or whether any effects would be sustained after treatment stopped. Side effect...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Mental health Source Type: news