[A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Epilepsy]

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of epilepsy.

We first collected research data about randomized control trials (RCTs) of acupuncture treatment of epilepsy from databases CNKI, CBM, VIP and Wanfang using key words "(acupuncture)", "(epilepsy)"or "(epilepsy)"or "(epilepsy)", and from PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library using key words "acupuncture" "needling" "prod" "epilepsy" "epilepsies" or "seizure disorder" or "simple seizure" from the date of database construction to May 5, 2017. Then, two researchers extracted the study outcomes and evaluated the evidence qualification of the research data independently using GRADE profile 3.6 software and analyzed the primary outcome indexes using RevMan 5.3 and STATA 14.0.

Eleven articles containing 827 cases were included in the Meta-analysis. We found that acupuncture or acupuncture in combination with other conventional drugs had a significantly better efficacy than conventional drugs in the treatment of epilepsy [OR=3.94, 95%CI (2.49, 6.24), Z=5.85, P<0.000 01]. There was a statistical heterogeneity (P=0.04, l²=60%), and the Meta-analysis was not feasible for the studies of acupuncture vs medication. Combination of acupuncture and Chinese traditional drugs was significantly better than simple Chinese traditional drugs [OR = 4.61, 95%CI (2.18, 9.74), Z=4.01, P<0.000 1], and combination of acupuncture and wes-tern medicines was obviously better than simple western medicines [OR=3.07, 95%CI(1.24, 7.65), Z=2.41, P=0.02] in the treatment of epilepsy.

Acupuncture therapy may have a positive effect in the treatment of epilepsy but the conclusion needs further verification due to very fewer high-quality and well-designed RCTs found at the present.