Is Acupuncture Efficacious for Treating Phonotraumatic Vocal Pathologies? A Randomized Control Trial.
Edwin M L Yiu, Karen M K Chan, Elaine Kwong and 6 others
PMID 26298839WHAT IT FOUND
Voice-related acupuncture did not clearly beat sham on vocal function.
Both acupuncture groups improved maximum pitch, while only the genuine group showed less lesion size. The vocal function gain was not maintained at three months.
Key findings
01In both genuine and sham acupuncture groups, maximum fundamental frequency was significantly higher at the 14-day and 30-day follow-ups than before treatment, but not at post-treatment or 90-day follow-up.
02For the 42 participants with complete laryngoscopic data, the genuine acupuncture group showed significant lesion-size reduction over time compared with the sham and no-treatment groups.
03On a 10-point self-perceived voice severity score, the genuine acupuncture group differed from the no-treatment group by 1.2 points and from the sham acupuncture group by 1.3 points; sham and no-treatment did not differ (0.1 points).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Attrition and missing follow-up data reduced the analysed sample from 123 recruited to 84 with complete data. The lesion-size result rests on 42 participants with complete analyzable laryngoscopic data. The sham acupuncture group also improved maximum fundamental frequency, so the trial cannot separate genuine needling from non-specific needling or expectation effects. The trial did not include voice therapy or surgery control groups, so it cannot compare acupuncture with usual care. Improvement in maximum fundamental frequency was not maintained at the 90-day follow-up.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that acupuncture is proven superior to sham. Both genuine and sham acupuncture improved maximum pitch, the lesion-size result used a small subgroup, and the vocal function gain was not maintained at three months.