Acupuncture for symptom relief in palliative care – study protocol and semi-standardized treatment schemes

Publication date: Available online 1 June 2017 Source:Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies Author(s): Sybille Kramer, Dominik Irnich, Stefan Lorenzl The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) methods as acupuncture in palliative care has increased over the last years. Well-planned trials are needed to show its effectiveness in relieving distressing symptoms. The development of treatment schemes to be used in the trial for both acupuncture and medical symptom control is challenging: Both acupuncture and palliative care are highly individualized. Thus standardized care plans of a randomized controlled trial will have difficulties in producing treatment result that compare to the clinical practice. As an alternative, treatment protocols for both acupuncture and medical symptom control of dyspnea, pruritus, hypersalivation, depression, anxiety and xerostomia were designed with the input of experts. They are designed to provide sufficient symptom control and comparability for a three-armed, randomized controlled trial. Medical symptom control will be provided to all groups. The two control groups will be medical treatment and sham-laser acupuncture.
Source: Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research