Acupuncture for Body Weight Control

Hong Kong Baptist University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Procedure: Acupuncture

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02516878

AcupBWC001

Details and patient eligibility

About

In this study, a 18-week, single-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness, efficacy and safety of acupuncture on weight control in Hong Kong.

Full description

This is a pilot single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. 72 participants will be randomly assigned to acupuncture group or control group. The duration of the treatment will be 8 weeks with 2 sessions per week and the follow-up period will be 8 weeks.

Enrollment: 72 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• aged between 18 and 65 years old;
• body mass index (BMI)≥25 kg/m2;
• having not received any other weight control measures or any medical and/or drug history within the last 3 months.

Exclusion criteria

• endocrine diseases;
• heart diseases;
• patients with pacemaker;
• allergy and immunology diseases;
• having bleeding tendency;
• pregnant or lactating women;
• having impaired hepatic or renal function;
• stroke or otherwise unable to exercise.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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72 participants in 2 patient groups

Acupuncture group

Experimental group

Description:

Eight body acupuncture points will be chosen as Tianshu(ST-25), Daheng(SP-15), Daimai(GB-26), Qihai(CV-6), Zhongwan(CV-12), Zusanli(ST-36), Fenlong(ST-40), Sanyinjiao(SP-6). The needles will be retained for 30 minutes. Participants of the treatment group will additionally receive unilateral auricular acupressure at four auricular points as Hunger, Shen men, Spleen and Stomach with Semen Vaccariae embedded within adhesive tape in each treatment session. Acupressure will be applied by the subjects with repeat pressing of the tape with fingertips for 3 minutes per point, 3 times per day. The embedded tape will be retained in-situ until the next visit and then the alternate side of ear will be treated.

Treatment:

Procedure: Acupuncture

Control group

Sham Comparator group

Description:

For subjects assigned to control group, Streitberger's non-invasive acupuncture needles (Gauge 8 x 1.2" / 0.30 x 30 mm) will be applied to serve as sham control at the same acupoints with the same stimulation modality, except that the needles are only adhered to the skin instead of insertion. The Semen Vaccariae embedded tape used in treatment group will be applied on 4 non-acupoints at the helix unilaterally, retained until the next visit and then the alternate ear will be used.

Treatment:

Procedure: Acupuncture