Ondrej Bangha
Krajinska 101, 82556 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Some asthmatics react during the first sessions of acupuncture treatment with subjective and / or objective worsening. Although these symptoms are commonly evaluated as favourable prognostic signs, they are still not sufficiently documented.
Material and methods;
56 asthmatics with mild to moderately severe bronchial obstruction were measured before and after acupuncture. We performed conventional pulmonary function tests in intervals before acupuncture and 30, 60 and 120 min. afterwards acupuncture was performed constantly with the same point combination. Ten patients received placebo puncture on neutral surface on the low back area.
Summary:
Two of ten patients with placebo and two of 46 with real acupuncture group showed similarities in increased bronchial obstruction after 30 to 60 minutes following acupuncture.
Conclusions:
Correlations have been found between placebo puncture and inverse reactions after real acupuncture. It seems necessary to encourage our colleagues to collect documented inverse reactions after acupuncture which could help in the further detailed analysis of this important question.