Acupuncture Combined With Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Are There Additional Benefits?

Beaumont Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Treatments: Other: Acupuncture; Other: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01112943

RCT-2-Acu

Details and patient eligibility

About

The hypothesis of this study was that acupuncture in conjunction with standard care of pulmonary rehabilitation improves outcome measures compared to pulmonary rehabilitation alone.

Full description

Pulmonary Rehabilitation is recognized as a pivotal component in International Guidelines for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In patients with COPD, clinical research using acupuncture has reported a significant reduction in the use of medications, decrease breathlessness and increased functional capacity. To our knowledge, this is the first time that these two treatments were combined to compare functional, physiological, biological and emotional/QOL outcomes in this cohort of patients.

Enrollment: 44 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 35+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• A diagnosis of COPD based on the GOLD staging of the disease
• Medical Research Council Score of 3 or Above
• Ability of mobilize independently
• Motivated to exercise independently

Exclusion criteria

• No evidence of COPD on spirometry
• Acute exacerbation within 4-6 weeks
• Evidence of Ischemic Heat Disease/acute changes on ECG
• Uncontrolled hypertension
• Insulin dependent diabetic
• Inability to exercise independently or musculoskeletal/neurological conditions which would prevent completion of the course
• Fear of needles
• Lung Cancer
• Previous attendance at pulmonary rehabilitation

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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44 participants in 3 patient groups

Acupuncture

Experimental group

Description:

Acupuncture on predefined points once a week for 20 minutes over the seven week pulmonary rehabilitation course

Treatment:

Other: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Other: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Other: Acupuncture

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Active Comparator group

Description:

A seven week exercise and educational class run twice a week using international guidelines.

Treatment:

Other: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Other: Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Three assessments over the same time frame of three months but without intervention