Psychiatry Advisor: Individuals with insomnia had improved sleep quality following 10 sessions of electroacupuncture, according to findings published in Nature and Science of Sleep.
Patients (N=150) with clinically defined insomnia were recruited at 4 hospitals in South Korea between 2015 and 2016. Participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive 10 electroacupuncture sessions 2-3 times per week for 4 weeks (n=49), sham-electroacupuncture (n=52), or usual care (n=49). Participants were assessed by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and asked to keep a sleep diary.
At the conclusion of the study, 14 participants dropped out due to consent withdrawal or protocol violations. All groups were well balanced at baseline for demographic characteristics, except for gender, in which more men were randomized to receive usual care compared with the other groups (P =.0253).
Throughout the study duration, ISI scores differed significantly between treatment and usual care at 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks (all P <.0001). At the beginning of the study no difference in ISI scores were observed during weeks 2 and 4 between the treatment and sham groups, however, at weeks 8 (P =.0213) and 12 (P =.0446) ISI scores were significantly reduced among the treatment group.
