Smith et al. (2002) published two articles from their study on nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. The first looks at the efficacy of acupuncture and the second looks at the safety of acupuncture treatment in early pregnancy. The aim would be compare the treatment of nausea and vomiting between Traditional Acupuncture, Acupuncture on the Neiguan P-6 point only, Sham Acupuncture and no Acupuncture.
593 women less than 14 weeks pregnant, who suffered from nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, were randomly selected into four groups and received weekly treatments. All groups received treatment from the same specialists. The results of the treatment were measured in terms of nausea, dry retching, vomiting and health status:
Traditional Acupuncture Group |
2 treatments of 20 minutes in the first week, followed by 1 treatment a week for the next 4 weeks;
Compared to women who received no treatment at all, they reported less nausea throughout the study and less dry vomiting from the second week onwards.
Sham Acupuncture Group |
Acupuncture at points close to those of Traditional Acupuncture, but different;
Less nausea and dry vomiting from the third week onwards.
Neiguan Acupuncture Group P-6 |
Same frequency as the Traditional Acupuncture and Sham Acupuncture groups;
Less nausea from the second week and less dry vomiting from the third week.
While all acupuncture groups reported improvements with nausea and dry vomiting, it was the Traditional Acupuncture that had the fastest response. The Traditional Acupuncture patients also reported improvements in 5 aspects of general health:
> Vitality;
> Social function;
> Physical function;
> Mental health;
> Emotional function;
Compared to the improvement in 2 aspects with the Neiguan P-6 and Sham groups. In the untreated group there was only improvement in 1 aspect.
Although there were no differences in vomiting between the treatment groups, the authors speculated that more frequent treatments may have produced more benefits. Data on pregnancy complications, perinatal outcome, congenital anomalies and problems with the newborn were collected to assess the safety of acupuncture in early pregnancy and no differences were found in the results of these tests between the groups involved – there are no serious side effects to acupuncture treatment in early pregnancy.
To sum up, acupuncture is safe and effective for women who experience nausea and dry vomiting in early pregnancy.
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