SynthesisFrontiers in neurology2022
Acupuncture for neuropathic pain: A meta-analysis of randomized control trials.
Synthesis in Frontiers in neurology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hot topics and trends in acupuncture for herpes zoster from 2015 to 2025: a bibliometric and knowledge graph analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of acupuncture for pain relief in shoulder-hand syndrome after stroke: a systematic evaluation and Bayesian network meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Acupuncture for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Pooled it
- Review
- Perioperative Treatment of Neuropathic Pain (Nerve SPACE 2025).Journal of hand surgery global online · 2026Article
- Mechanism-based management of taxane-induced neuropathic pain in breast cancer survivors: a critical review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The application of acupuncture in the management of neuropathic orofacial pain: a narrative literature review.Journal of oral & facial pain and headache · 2025Review
- Evaluation of acupuncture on pain intensity and sleep quality in patients with neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury.American journal of translational research · 2025Article
- A Systematic Guideline by the ASPN Workgroup on the Evidence, Education, and Treatment Algorithm for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy: SWEET.Journal of pain research · 2024Review
- Acupuncture for radicular pain: a review of analgesic mechanism.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is expected to increase due to the high risk of global population aging. Acupuncture has a definite clinical effect on NP. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate the effect on pain intensity and safety of acupuncture in patients with NP. Methods: An encompassing search of specific authoritative databases in English, from their inception to 2022, was performed. The databases were as follows: Scopus, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid MEDLINE(R) and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, and Daily. All the randomized controlled trials regarding the acupuncture treatment of NP will be included. Methodological quality assessment of the included trials was assessed based on the risk of bias from the Cochrane handbook. A meta-analysis was performed for the main outcomes. In addition, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and funnel plot were also carried out. Results: A total of 16 studies with 1,021 patients with NP were evaluated in a systematic review. According to the results of the overall meta-analysis in eight RCTs with 338 participants, the acupuncture group was better than the control group in improving changes in pain intensity (SMD -0.59, 95% CI: -0.95 to -0.23, Conclusion: The acupuncture group had higher effectiveness than sham intervention or blank control for changes in pain intensity, but there is no significant difference between acupuncture and conventional treatments in treating NP. The acupuncture-induced adverse events were mild and reversible. However, the interpretation of our results should be performed cautiously due to the low methodological quality of selected publications. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022306461.
Indexed as
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.