Acupuncture could help improve sleep in people receiving treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
- A new study examined how acupuncture affects
sleep in people with Parkinson’s disease.
- The researchers compared real acupuncture with
‘sham acupuncture,’ where they performed the procedure without sharp tips
or otherwise prevented the needles from fully entering the skin.
- At the end of the study, the researchers learned
that the patients who received the real acupuncture therapy experienced
improved sleep at a higher rate compared to the people who received the
placebo therapy.
- The patients who received real acupuncture also
experienced an improved quality of life as a result of the improved sleep.
Parkinson’s disease is a
type of nervous system disorder that affects movement and can cause cognitive
changes. While there is not a cure for the disease, there are some treatments
available that can either slow progression or help with symptoms.
One problem many people
with Parkinson’s disease face is difficulty with getting quality sleep. Poor
sleep can exacerbate symptoms, so researchers based in China recently conducted
a study to see whether acupuncture can help improve sleep.
When compared to
a placebo form of acupuncture, the study participants saw improvements in both
sleep and their quality of life.
The study findings are
published in JAMA Network Open.
Why people
with Parkinson’s disease have poor sleep
According to the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), around 500,000 people in the
United States have Parkinson’s disease, and experts suspect that number could
be twice as high since many people live with Parkinson’s for some time before
diagnosis.
An early symptom of the disorder is developing a tremor, and people
may eventually develop muscle stiffness, coordination issues, sleep problems,
depression, and later experience difficulty swallowing, walking, and
communicating.
Parkinson’s disease
worsens over time, but symptoms can be managed with medications, surgical
treatments such as deep brain stimulation, and occupational or physical therapies.
While these
therapies help with symptoms, they can also contribute to reducing sleep
quality in people with Parkinson’s disease. Poor sleep can worsen Parkinson’s
symptoms and overall contribute to a worsened quality of life.
Sometimes providers
prescribe sleep medications, but oftentimes these medications cause drowsiness
during the day. This led researchers in the current study to see whether
acupuncture could help with sleep quality.
How 4 weeks
of acupuncture treatment affected sleep in Parkinson’s
Acupuncture is
a form of traditional Chinese medication and has been around for thousands of
years. According to the NIH, acupuncture involves inserting needles into pressure
points in the skin to treat health issues that include:
- fibromyalgia
- sciatica
- osteoarthritis
- cancer pain
- migraine.
According to the
authors of the current study, “when used as an adjunctive therapy with
anti-Parkinson medications, acupuncture has shown positive effects in improving
sleep quality and reducing motor symptoms.”
Since the prior research
on using acupuncture to help with sleep quality in Parkinson’s disease was
limited, the researchers in the current study wanted to delve further into this
with a double-blind clinical trial.
The researchers studied
78 participants who were ages 30 to 80. All participants had moderate to severe
sleep issues and were presently taking an anti-Parkinson’s medication.
Prior to treatment, all
participants completed the Parkinson’s Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS)
questionnaire. The researchers used this to assess their sleep quality.
The scientists randomly
placed the participants into one of two groups: real acupuncture or sham
acupuncture. The sham group was a placebo group that did not receive actual
acupuncture therapy.
The participants
received their acupuncture treatments three times per week for 30-minute sessions
for 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks were up, the participants completed the PDSS
again and then one more time at an 8-week follow-up.
The researchers also
administered tests to assess motor skills and non-motor skills of the
participants to see how deficits impacted their daily living.
‘Lasting
clinical benefits in improving sleep quality’
After comparing the PDSS
results between the real acupuncture group and the sham acupuncture group, the
researchers found that the real acupuncture group experienced significant
improvements in their sleep quality.
“Acupuncture
provides lasting clinical benefits in improving subjective sleep quality in
patients with Parkinson’s disease,” wrote the authors.
The participants in the
real acupuncture group had an improvement of 29.65 points in their PDSS score
at the 4-week appointment compared to a 10.47 point improvement in the sham
acupuncture group.
Additionally, at
the 8-week follow-up, the participants in the real acupuncture group continued
to show improvement in their PDSS results but the sham acupuncture group did
not.
The researchers saw
similar results in the overall quality of life improvement for people in the
real acupuncture group. They had a reduction in both motor and non-motor skills
severity compared to their baseline scores.
Since none of the
participants had adverse side effects, the authors concluded that acupuncture
is a safe and effective adjunct therapy for improving both sleep quality and
quality of life in people with Parkinson’s disease.
Acupuncture
does not replace traditional treatment
Lijana Shestopal, DTCM, LAc,
CSMA, a licensed acupuncturist based
in Illinois, spoke with Medical News Today about the study.
Shestopal was not involved in this research.
She commented that:
“Considering
that acupuncture has no side effects and it does not interfere with any of the
pharmaceuticals the patient might be on, this is a groundbreaking finding.”
Shestopal treats
patients with Parkinson’s disease and noted that the study can “really help
with educating the general public just how much acupuncture can help.”
While she emphasized how
much acupuncture can help, she also noted that people must stick with the
treatment and be realistic about their expectations.
“It is not a
magic pill from which you get automatic results after one treatment, but with a
course of treatments, health does improve in many ways without side effects,”
emphasized Shestopal.
Raveesh Sunkara, MBBS, MS, MCh, a neurosurgeon associated with ClinicSpots in
Hyderabad, India, also spoke with MNT about the study
findings. Like Shestopal, Sunkara was not involved in the recent study.
“Overall, investigating
acupuncture for sleep in Parkinson’s disease holds promise for improving
patient well-being,” Sunkara told MNT. “However, further research
and overcoming logistical hurdles are necessary for its widespread integration
into standard care.”
Sunkara noted that this
type of therapy could be difficult for some people to obtain. He said finding
acupuncturists who have experience treating people with Parkinson’s disease
could be difficult, and the cost of the therapy could also pose a problem.
“Insurance coverage for
acupuncture can vary, potentially limiting patient access,” he cautioned.
Sunkara also emphasized
that acupuncture in people with Parkinson’s disease would not replace existing
treatments for Parkinson’s.
“Acupuncture
should not replace traditional Parkinson’s disease medications but can be a
complementary therapy,” he advised.
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