Acupuncture for severe constipation

2018-02-02 15:10:57

Acupuncture for severe constipation
Acupuncture has been shown to help with chronic severe functional constipation (CSFC). Which patients have a better response is unclear and this study examined that (1). The authors performed a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial, in which patients received electroacupuncture or sham electroacupuncture. Responders were defined as participants with an increase of at least one complete spontaneous bowel movement in week 20 compared with the baseline period. The results showed that the responder rate was significantly greater in the active group. Both age and comorbidity were negatively associated with clinical response: with every one-year increase in age, the likelihood of clinical response was reduced by 1.2% and patients with comorbidities were approximately 42% less likely to respond to treatment. The authors conclude that CSFC patients with increasing age and comorbidity may be less likely to respond to acupuncture