ArticleChinese medicine2024
Acupuncture improves the symptoms, serum ghrelin, and autonomic nervous system of patients with postprandial distress syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.
Article in Chinese medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in modulating autonomic nervous function: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Comparative Efficacy of Low-Level Laser Acupuncture and Electroacupuncture in Women With Dysmenorrhea and Autonomic Imbalance: A Pilot Randomized-Controlled Trial.Pain research & management · 2025Trial
- Alternative Therapeutic Approaches in the Management of Gastroparesis: A Systematic Review.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Autonomic Nervous System in Acupuncture for Gastrointestinal Dysmotility: From Anatomical Insights to Clinical Medicine.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Review
- Regulation of autonomic nervous system by acupuncture: a heart rate variability study on physical stress.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Acupuncture at Sensitized Acupoints versus Sham Acupuncture for Neck-Type Cervical Spondylosis: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhether gastrointestinal hormones in patients with postprandial distress syndrome (PDS) are altered by acupuncture, and whether such alterations are related to the autonomic nervous system (ANS), remains an open question.
objectiveThis study aims to investigate the effects of acupuncture on symptoms, serum hormones, and ANS in PDS patients.
methodsThis randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine affiliated with Capital Medical University. Sixty-two PDS patients were randomly assigned equally to acupuncture or sham acupuncture arm (3 sessions per week for 4-week). The main outcome measures which were evaluated at baseline and 4-week included cardinal symptoms, serum hormones including ghrelin, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), substance P (SP), and ANS.
resultsAmong the 62 randomly assigned participants, 51 (82%) were included in the baseline characteristics and outcome analysis. Gastrointestinal symptoms including response rate (p = 0.001) and dyspepsia symptom severity (p = 0.002) were significantly improved after acupuncture treatment. Serum ghrelin concentration was significantly higher in acupuncture group than in sham acupuncture group (8.34 ± 3.00 ng/ml versus 6.52 ± 2.00 ng/ml, p = 0.022) after 4-week treatment, instead of VIP and SP (p > 0.05). The acupuncture group had significantly higher vagal activity, showing with increasing of high-frequency component (HF, p ≤ 0.001) and decreasing of the ratio of low-frequency and HF (p ≤ 0.001). In relationship analysis, the HF component exhibited a significant inverse correlation with symptom severity (R = - 0.501, p ≤ 0.001), but not with ghrelin level (R = 0.026, p = 0.865).
conclusionAcupuncture may improve the symptoms and increase the ghrelin level of PDS patients, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture was associated with the alteration of vagal activity.
trial registrationThe trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN12511434. Registered 31 March 2017, https://www.isrctn.com/ .
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