ReviewJournal of pain research2026
Acupuncture for Postherpetic Neuralgia: An Evidence Mapping.
Review in Journal of pain research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study is to systematically evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture for PHN and provide a visual overview of treatment landscape. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP), and Wanfang Database for systematic reviews (SRs) on acupuncture for PHN up to Apr 18, 2025. Studies were included if they were SRs of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing traditional Chinese acupuncture interventions for PHN, and excluded if they involved non-traditional acupuncture, herpes zoster, or PHN prevention research. Two independent reviewers utilized Excel, EndNote 20, and R software for data analysis and assessed the quality of included studies using the AMSTAR2 tool. Results: Of 351 identified records, 40 SRs met inclusion criteria, encompassing 926 RCTs, 63,493 patients, 13 types of acupuncture interventions and 29 outcomes. Acupuncture interventions, particularly fire needling, CPBLC, Fu's subcutaneous needling, plum-blossom needle, multi-acupuncture and multi-acupuncture + pharmacotherapy, showed the most robust benefits in improving effective rate, reducing visual analog scale (VAS) scores, and decreasing adverse reactions in PHN treatment. Despite most SRs reporting positive outcomes, the quality was generally low by AMSTAR2. Conclusion: Acupuncture could be a valuable adjunct to standard PHN treatment, offering benefits in overall efficacy, pain management and treatment safety. However, high-quality clinical trials and systematic reviews are needed to confirm these preliminary results and guide clinical practice.
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.