Evaluation of Acupuncture in the treatment of restless legs syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Publication date: Available online 22 August 2017 Source:Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies Author(s): Gholamreza Raissi, Bijan Forogh, Tannaz Ahadi, Samaneh Ghahramanpoori, Pouya Ghaboussi, Simin Sajadi The aim of this study was to examine the additive effect of medical acupuncture on controlling the symptoms of restless legs syndrome. 46 randomly allocated patients diagnosed with RLS, assigned to receive either 10 sessions of acupuncture plus gabapentin (300mg/day) or gabapentin (300mg/day) alone (23 patients in each group) over 4 weeks in a single blind study. The symptoms of patients were assessed by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), International Restless Leg Syndrome Study Group rating scale (IRLSRS) and Pittsburgh sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline, just after therapeutic course and 8 weeks later. For all outcome measures, there was a significant time-group interaction, showing that the behavior of groups differed regarding changes in VAS, IRLSRS and PSQI in the favor of experimental group. After therapeutic course termination and in 8 weeks follow up, VAS and IRLSRS had a significant improvement in both experimental and control group but PSQI improved significantly just in experimental group. Based on the findings of the present study, acupuncture plus low dose of gabapentin (300mg/day) is clinically useful in the treatment of restless legs syndrome during 8 weeks follow up and also have additive therapeutic effect over gabapentin alone in patients wit...
Source: Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research