Placebo acupuncture associated with higher pregnancy rate
Thursday, 13 Nov 2008 00:01
Placebo acupuncture found to be associated with significantly higher pregnancy rate
Placebo acupuncture has been found to be associated with a significantly higher pregnancy rate than real acupuncture during assisted reproduction, experts claim.
In a study published in the medical journal Human Reproduction today, researchers looked at both types of acupuncture given on the day of embryo transfer in 370 patients.
The researchers found that the overall pregnancy rate (defined by a positive urinary pregnancy test) for placebo acupuncture was 55.1 per cent, versus 43.8 per cent for the real acupuncture.
"We found a significantly higher overall pregnancy rate following placebo acupuncture when compared with that of real acupuncture," the authors claim.
"In addition, there was a trend towards higher rates of clinical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy, live birth and embryo implantation in the placebo acupuncture group, although the differences did not reach statistical significance."
Today's report suggests two possible explanations for the results. Firstly that placebo treatment was similar to the real thing and therefore good enough to improve the pregnancy rate. Or secondly, that real acupuncture may, in some way, reduce the pregnancy rate of acupuncture.
"So far there is no evidence that real acupuncture would adversely affect IVF outcomes because, in a previous meta-analysis of several acupuncture studies, the pregnancy rate was higher in the acupuncture groups than in the control groups," Dr Ernest Hung Yu Ng, from the University of Hong Kong, said.
"However, we cannot draw a firm conclusion about this from our current study as we did not compare the two groups with a third control group patients who received neither forms of acupuncture. Further studies should be conducted to compare placebo or non-invasive acupuncture and controls without acupuncture."
Infertile patients can suffer from high levels of stress and anxiety, which can adversely affect the outcome of IVF.
Researchers claim anxiety levels drop significantly following placebo and real acupuncture and the reduction in stress may contribute to a better pregnancy rate.