Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: To observe the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
METHODS: Ninety cases of CFS were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 45 cases in each group. The observation group was treated with acupuncture at Renying (ST 9), Fengfu (GV 16), Baihui (GV 20); the control group was treated with 250 mL 5% Glucose injection combined with 20 mL Shenmai injection. Fatigue Scale (FS) was used to compare the scores between the two groups after treatment.
RESULTS: The total scores in the observation group were 9.37 +/- 2.33 and 5.41 +/- 1.96 before and after treatment respectively, and in the control group, they were 9.08 +/- 2.27 and 7.34 +/- 2.03 respectively. FS brainwork integral, physical fatigue integral, and total integral all decreased after treatment in two groups (all P < 0.001), and it decreased much more obviously in the observation group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01).
CONCLUSION: Both of the acupuncture treatment and Shenmai injection are able to decrease fatigue scale score, improve the fatigue symptoms of CFS patients, and the effect of acupuncture treatment is obviously superior to that of Shenmai injection.
Source: Chen XH, Li LQ, Zhang W, Yang J, Dai YS, Xu DH, Tang CZ. Randomized controlled study on acupuncture treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2010 Jul;30(7):533-6. [Article in Chinese] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20862932