ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2013
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture in preterm and term infants.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acupuncture for procedural pain in newborn infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Non-pharmacological pain relief interventions in preterm neonates undergoing screening for retinopathy of prematurity: a systematic review.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2023Pooled it
- Acupuncture Treatment for Nocturnal Crying in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Acupuncture treatments for infantile colic: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of blinding test validated randomised controlled trials.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2018Pooled it
- Acupuncture for infantile colic: a blinding-validated, randomized controlled multicentre trial in general practice.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2013Trial
- Acceptance of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Launching Point.Global advances in health and medicine · 2020Article
- Culturally Based Practice in Neonatal Procedural Pain Management: A Mini Review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2020Review
- Use of Acupuncture in an Infant with Restlessness and Agitation.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Acupuncture for Infantile Colic: A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2018Review
- Acupuncture in the neonatal intensive care unit-using ancient medicine to help today's babies: a review.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2017Review
- 'Big needles, small bodies'-the absence of acupuncture treatment for infants in contemporary Shanghai: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2015Article
- Efficacy and safety of acupuncture in children: an overview of systematic reviews.Pediatric research · 2015Review
- Acupuncture in the treatment of infantile colic.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2015Article
- Changes of locoregional skin temperature in neonates undergoing laser needle acupuncture at the acupuncture point large intestine 4.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2015Article
- Response to letter to the editor.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2014Article
- Acupuncture in practice: investigating acupuncturists' approach to treating infantile colic.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2013Article
- Near-infrared spectroscopy for objectifying cerebral effects of laser acupuncture in term and preterm neonates.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of the paper was to review the literature about safety and efficiency of acupuncture therapy in term and preterm infants. We searched Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials using a predefined algorithm, reviewed abstracts from the Pediatric Academic Society annual meetings (2000-2012), and performed a manual search of references in narrative and systematic reviews. A total of 26 studies identified met our search criteria. Only 6 of these studies met our inclusion criteria; however, two studies had to be excluded because the manuscripts were published in Chinese. Hence, only four studies were included in our analysis. Three of the four studies evaluated the effects of acupuncture on infantile colic, and one assessed pain reduction during minor painful procedures in preterm babies. The limited data available suggests that acupuncture could be a safe nonpharmacologic treatment option for pain reduction in term and preterm infants and could also be a non-pharmacologic treatment option to treat infantile colic. Currently acupuncture in infants should be limited to clinical trials and studies evaluating short- and long-term effects and should be performed only by practitioners with adequate training and experience in neonatal/pediatric acupuncture.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.