Inspired by Chen et al J Affect Disord 2019.[1] Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash. The massive Taiwanese National Health Database strikes again! This time it was used to find new cases of depression between 1997 and 2010. The team found just over 55k cases. Of these, 13 823 received acupuncture treatment, and they were … Continue reading Depression stroke risk and acupuncture
Inspired by Wang et al Chest 2018.[1] Photo by David Yanutama on Unsplash. I am a bit slow to comment on this paper that was published nearly a year ago. This morning a colleague from Madrid asked my opinion on an earnest letter dismissing the research.[2] I had a quick look over both and thought the original … Continue reading Acupuncture non-inferior to NRT
Inspired by Lund et al BMJ Open 2019.[1] Photo by Ryan Moreno on Unsplash- representing waking up soaking wet as some of my patients describe... This paper hit the ground running, so to speak. I guess it must have been press released by BMJ, because it ended up on the BBC News website late on Saturday 9th March … Continue reading Hot flushes 2019
Inspired by Llamas Fuentes et al Med Clin (Barc) 2019.[1] Image from an old version of Adam Interactive anatomy. We have another case report of a serious adverse event following acupuncture. This time cardiac damage from needling in the area of the sternum. But my title refers more to my disappointment at the entire lack … Continue reading Heartbreak
Inspired by Shih C-C et al QJM 2019.[1] Immortal Bridge, Mount Tai, ChinaPhoto by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PfctdayeliseSky edit by MC – sky from sunset over South Island New Zealand This paper struck me as interesting because of its size, its overlap with previous topics on the blog (VCIND, CHD in RA), but most of all because it … Continue reading Immortal time bias
Inspired by Siqueira et al 2018.[1] A shot from the Ealing half marathon 2018 at around the 9 mile point - my arms were aching after taking over 2k of photos through a heavy zoom lens whilst waiting for my boy (5448) to come past 😀 This paper popped up on PubCrawler this morning. I’m … Continue reading Needling runners’ knees
Inspired by Priola et al 2019.[1] This is the first reported case of a cranial epidural abscess as a likely complication of acupuncture treatment. The report was written by the specialist neurosurgical team under whom the patient was admitted. This is often the case in such unusual and serious adverse events, but it also limits … Continue reading Cranial epidural abscess
Inspired by observation and inequity… and a question from a patient in my clinic yesterday. In 1996 Sackett et al wrote an editorial in the BMJ titled:[1] Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. The subtitle ran thus: It's about integrating individual clinical expertise and the best external evidence. Note that individual … Continue reading Too Earnest about Evidence
Inspired by Yang et al 2019 [1] Have you heard of VCIND? This paper attracted my attention principally because I had not come across this acronym before. VCIND stands for vascular cognitive impairment no dementia. VCI is the type of cognitive impairment that commonly accompanies stroke, and it can be a forerunner to the development … Continue reading VCIND
This was a meeting set up at fairly short notice by SAME (La Sociedad de Acupuntura Médica de España). It was an exercise designed to get media attention on the fact that there is a lot of scientific support for the practice of acupuncture. It was successful in that it got onto the national news … Continue reading The Madrid Panel
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