The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of cognitive impairment from Parkinson disease: A meta-analysis and systematic review.

BACKGROUND

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for treating patients with cognitive impairment from Parkinson disease (PDCI).

METHODS

We searched the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang (WF), Weipu (VIP), China Biology Medicine, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Clinical Trials electronic databases from database inception to January 2024 to identify randomized controlled trials that examined the use of acupuncture to treat PDCI. Studies published in Chinese or English were considered eligible. Two independent reviewers performed the literature search. Data extracted from the included studies were analyzed via RevMan 5.4 software for Meta. The mean effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals were calculated.

RESULTS

This meta-analysis ultimately included 9 articles involving a total of 629 patients. The outcome measures included the mini-mental state examination, the montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), and the overall effective rate. The meta-analysis revealed that there were significant differences in all 3 outcomes between the experimental and control groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Acupuncture can be used as an effective treatment for PDCI and is significantly superior to conventional treatments. However, considering the low methodological quality of the included studies, results of this meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution. In addition, due to the inconsistency observed in this study, more clinical trials are needed for further investigation.