Veterinary Acupuncture: An Unproven Technique?

[Guest guest]

Hi All, especially Vet Acupuncturists,

 

Please pass the word to Vet AP colleagues not on the List. EBM has

become the Holy Grail in Vet med as well as human med.

 

A recent review (see abstract below) will please the EBM/Quackbuster

lobby who would railroad Vet AP to the scrap-heap. By the strict

standards imposed by EBM on the selection of papers on Vet AP

articles for review, vet acupuncture is an unproven technique.

 

The review concludes " On the basis of the findings of this systematic

review, there is no compelling evidence to recommend or reject

acupuncture for any condition in domestic animals. Some encouraging

data do exist that warrant further investigation in independent rigorous

trials. " .

 

So, must Vet acupuncturists around the world stop using AP because

the EBM lobby say that the technique has no compelling proof of

efficacy in animals?

 

Heck, no! I (and those of you who use it) see useful to excellent clinical

responses to AP every day that I treat animals.

 

However, the warning shots have been fired. We DESPERATELY need

high quality controlled research to underpin the validity of our use of AP

in animals.

 

Best regards,

 

 

Habacher G, Pittler MH, Ernst E. Effectiveness of acupuncture in

veterinary medicine: systematic review. J Vet Intern Med. 2006 May-

Jun;20(3):480-8. University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.

Acupuncture is a popular complementary treatment option in human

medicine. Increasingly, owners also seek acupuncture for their animals.

The aim of the systematic review reported here was to summarize and

assess the clinical evidence for or against the effectiveness of

acupuncture in veterinary medicine. Systematic searches were

conducted on Medline, Embase, Amed, Cinahl, Japana Centra Revuo

Medicina and Chikusan Bunken Kensaku. Hand-searches included

conference proceedings, bibliographies, and contact with experts and

veterinary acupuncture associations. There were no restrictions

regarding the language of publication. All controlled clinical trials testing

acupuncture in any condition of domestic animals were included.

Studies using laboratory animals were excluded. Titles and abstracts of

identified articles were read, and hard copies were obtained. Inclusion

and exclusion of studies, data extraction, and validation were performed

independently by two reviewers. Methodologic quality was evaluated by

means of the Jadad score. Fourteen randomized controlled trials and

17 nonrandomized controlled trials met our criteria and were, therefore,

included. The methodologic quality of these trials was variable but, on

average, was low. For cutaneous pain and diarrhea, encouraging

evidence exists that warrants further investigation in rigorous trials.

Single studies reported some positive intergroup differences for spinal

cord injury, Cushing's syndrome, lung function, hepatitis, and rumen

acidosis. These trials require independent replication. On the basis of

the findings of this systematic review, there is no compelling evidence to

recommend or reject acupuncture for any condition in domestic

animals. Some encouraging data do exist that warrant further

investigation in independent rigorous trials. PMID: 16734078 [PubMed -

indexed for MEDLINE]