Monthly Archives: April 2021

This article was originally published here

Rev Environ Health. 2021 Apr 12. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2021-0012. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Despite the high prevalence of coronavirus and various treatment approaches, including complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), there is still no definitive treatment for coronavirus. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of CAM interventions on COVID-19 patients.

CONTENT: Four databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and EMBASE) were searched from the inception of databases until July 16, 2020. Keywords included complementary and alternative medicine therapies and Coronavirus.

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK: Of the 1,137 studies searched, 14 studies performed on 972 COVID-19 patients entered the systematic review final stage. The results showed that different CAM interventions (acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine [TCM], relaxation, Qigong) significantly improved various psychological symptoms (depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality, negative emotions, quality of life) and physical symptoms (inflammatory factors, physical activity, chest pain, and respiratory function) in COVID-19 patients. The results showed that various CAM interventions have a positive effect on improving the various dimensions of coronavirus disease but since there are few studies in this regard, further studies using different CAM approaches are recommended.

PMID:33838089 | DOI:10.1515/reveh-2021-0012

Originally posted here:

Complementary and alternative medicine therapies and COVID-19: a systematic review - DocWire News

You might be surprised to learn that a cancerous tumor is not a single set of cells and some of these tumor cells are more prone to spread to different parts of the body. They are the reason for cancer metastasizing. That subset of tumor cells are known as cancer stem cells and they also are more resistant to anti-cancer medications and radiation therapy.

Recent medical studies have shown cancer stem cells seem to be sensitive to common medications and some dietary supplements. With these therapies, their ability to metastasize may be reduced by as much as 90%. As a result, some researchers suggest cancer therapy should also include therapies that target cancer stem cells.

Cancer stem cells, or CSCs, are a small subpopulation of cells within tumors with capabilities of self-renewal, differentiation and tumorigenicity. The clinical relevance of CSCs demonstrates that CSCs quickly develop resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. CSCs were first described by John Dick in 1994. He discovered that CSCs are slower growing than other tumor cells. Traditional anti-cancer therapies focus on fast-growing cells so it is not unusual for CSCs to "escape" and travel to other parts of the body.

Dick stated that "to get rid of the cancer, you have to find ways of eliminating the stem cells." CSCs may be susceptible to common antibiotics.

All cells contain a unique organelles called mitochondria. It is in the mitochondria that much of the energy used in the cell is made. Both the cell and its mitochondria independently make needed proteins through a protein-based "machine" termed a ribosome. Ribosomes of the cell and the mitochondria are quite different. Indeed, mitochondrial ribosomes are more related to bacterial ribosomes than cellular ribosomes. Some antibiotics kill bacteria by inactivating their ribosomes and there is some research indicating these antibiotics, by the same mechanism, affect the mitochondrial ribosomes of CSCs.

One study published in the medical journal Aging demonstrated that two antibiotics and vitamin C reduced propagation of CSCs by 90%. This was a study done in test tube (in vitro) but the results are compelling. The two antibiotics, doxycycline and azithromycin, bind to CSCs ribosomes at different sites. Vitamin C enhances the effects of the antibiotics. The end result dramatically reduces the metabolic activity of the CSCs, reducing their ability to metastasize.

An additional benefit of azithromycin is that, by a different mechanism, it may reduce the ability of CSCs to survive. Another, less well-known antibiotic, salinomycin (Chemistry, 2020), induces CSCs death by forcing the cells to accumulate toxic levels of iron.

The clinical trials for antibiotics and CSCs is limited but positive. However, given the low toxicity associated with these antibiotics and the potential gain for cancer patients, antibiotic therapy should be considered in combination with chemotherapy, radiation therapy and even surgery. In the fight against cancer, no stone should be left unturned.

Dr. Patrick Massey is medical director of complementary and alternative medicine at Alexian Brothers Hospital Network, and president of ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy, 1544 Nerge Road, Elk Grove Village.

See the rest here:

Antibiotics need further study in cancer treatments - Chicago Daily Herald

Phillip D. Wilson, D.D.S., assistant clinical professor in the University of New England College of Dental Medicine (CDM), is one in a team of authors of a clinical research report on oral appliance therapy (OAT) as an alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which was recently published in the Journal of Dental Research.

The report, Randomized Trial of 2 Self-Titrated Oral Appliances for Airway Management, compared two widely used oral appliance (OAs) designs and tested whether they differed in reducing the respiratory event index (REI) a figure used to indicate the severity of OSA.

The randomized crossover study examined the differences in reducing REI between two oral appliances: the TAP1 and SomnoDent Flex. Due to design differences, the TAP1 device tends to restrict mouth opening during sleep, while the SomnoDent Flex allows for complete mouth opening. The goal of the research was to determine if these design variances had differing effects and if OAT was even effective in treating OSA.

To complete the study, participants used one dentist-fitted OA nightly for four weeks followed by a one-week washout period, during which participants were instructed to use their CPAP machines instead. This washout period was followed by a second four-week trial during which participants used the alternate OA.

Individuals received training on how to titrate each appliance and were instructed to advance their mandibles based on each manufacturers guidelines if they observed any snoring, OSA events, or persistent daytime sleepiness. To measure REI, home sleep recordings were collected using the NOX T3 recorder, and oxygen saturation was measured with a finger probe pulse oximeter.

After nine weeks, the researchers found that both devices demonstrated equivalent REI attenuation regardless of jaw-opening limitations, and both designs significantly reduced the REI in adults with moderate and severe OSA. These findings were somewhat surprising because the current understanding is that OAT was only effective for those suffering from mild OSA, Wilson said.

When self-titrated over a short period of four weeks, the results suggest that both designs improve upper airway function and stability, reduce its collapsibility, and increase oropharyngeal space, the team wrote. Collectively, our data suggest self-titrated OAs can be routinely offered as a treatment option for OSA patients, and clinicians can expect about a 50% response rate and to bring the REI down to about eight to 16 events per hour after eight weeks among patients, including those with severe OSA.

See the article here:

Professor's study on alternative treatments for sleep apnea published in Journal of Dental Research - University of New England

The report gives definite information about Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market development, market size, CAGR, top driving key players and detailed investigation about market patterns. It assists with upgrading the business procedures, and to develop business opportunities.Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative MedicineMarket research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. This report contains Market segmentation on the basis of its types, applications and regions.

Click the link to get a free Sample Copy of the Report:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03082684919/global-integrative-health-or-complementary-and-alternative-medicine-market-growth-status-and-outlook-2021-2026/inquiry?Mode=P1

The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market. Top Companies in the Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market: Arab Yoga Foundation (AYF), Soul Warrior, Sukoun, Aura Wellness, Intouch Clinic, Landmark Fitness Ltd., Osana Family Wellness, Cairo Osteopathy, Blue Tree Clinics, House of Nature Medical Center, Zen Yoga, Salmiya SKY Meditation Centre, Jordan Chiropracti and others.

Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Split by Product Type and Applications:

This report segments the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market on the basis of Types are:

Traditional Alternative Medicine & Botanicals

Mind Healing

Body Healing

Sensory Healing

On the basis of Application, the Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market is segmented into:

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs)

Obesity

Diabetes

Infertility

Others

Regional Analysis For Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market:

For comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market is analyzed across key geographies namely: United States, China, Europe, Japan, South-east Asia, India and others. Each of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.

Influence of the Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market report:

-Comprehensive assessment of all opportunities and risk in the Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market.-Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market recent innovations and major events.-Detailed study of business strategies for growth of the Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market-leading players.-Conclusive study about the growth plot of Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market for forthcoming years.-In-depth understanding of Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market-particular drivers, constraints and major micro markets.-Favourable impression inside vital technological and market latest trends striking the Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market.

Click the link to browse full report:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03082684919/global-integrative-health-or-complementary-and-alternative-medicine-market-growth-status-and-outlook-2021-2026?Mode=P1

What Are The Market Factors That Are Explained In The Report?

Key Strategic Developments:The study also includes the key strategic developments of the market, comprising R&D, new product launch, M&A, agreements, collaborations, partnerships, joint ventures, and regional growth of the leading competitors operating in the market on a global and regional scale.

Analytical Tools:The Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Report includes the accurately studied and assessed data of the key industry players and their scope in the market by means of a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysis, feasibility study, and investment return analysis have been used to analyze the growth of the key players operating in the market.

Key Market Features:The report evaluated key market features, including revenue, price, capacity, capacity utilization rate, gross, production, production rate, consumption, import/export, supply/demand, cost, market share, CAGR, and gross margin. In addition, the study offers a comprehensive study of the key market dynamics and their latest trends, along with pertinent market segments and sub-segments.

Customization of the Report: This report can be customized as per your needs for additional data up to 3 companies or countries or 40 analyst hours.

Please connect with our sales team (sales@marketinsightsreports.com).

About Us:

MarketInsightsReportsprovides syndicated market research on industry verticals includingHealthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc.MarketInsightsReportsprovides global and regional market intelligence coverage, a 360-degree market view which includes statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.

Contact Us:

Irfan Tamboli (Head of Sales) Market Insights Reports

Phone: + 1704 266 3234 | +91-750-707-8687

sales@marketinsightsreports.com | irfan@marketinsightsreports.com

More:

Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Emerging Trends and Technology 2021 to 2026 Arab Yoga Foundation (AYF), Soul...

A recent review took a look at the promise of measuring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) with digital-droplet PCR (ddPCR) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) as the landscape of this cancer continues to shift toward personalized, precision treatment.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker in several cancers and a viable alternative to traditional blood-based protein biomarkers, including in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

A recent review took a look at the promise of measuring the novel biomarker with digital-droplet PCR (ddPCR) in PDAC as the cancer landscape continues to push toward personalized, precision treatment. In this setting, ctDNA allows for a unique approach to exploring genetic mutations that may be translated into the clinical setting, explained the authors of the review.

Liquid biopsy is of great importance in PDAC as adequate tumor tissue is scarce. The trouble of obtaining enough tumor sample to carry out molecular studies in PDAC makes it difficult to advance the field of personalized therapy in this tumor type, wrote the authors. For this reason, the possibility of performing genetic studies in peripheral blood takes on special relevance in PDAC and would probably stimulate the advancement in precision medicine in these patients.

The ddPCR approach hinges on nanoliter-sized water-in-oil emulsion droplet technology and allows for accurate quantification of a small amount of circulating nucleic acids in plasma. The sensitive, accurate approach has suggested the possibility of alternative, unestablished biomarkers in PDAC that have traditionally eluded alternative, more traditional methods.

In one study, ddPCR identified plasma KRAS mutant ctDNA in 8 of 31 patients (26%) that were at various stages of disease. The researchers of the study also found that KRAS mutant detection has significant associations with inferior overall survival (OS). Similar results were shown in several other studies that showed an approximately 30% ctDNA KRAS detection rate with ddPCR and determined associations between KRAS mutations and OS.

NGS approaches have the potential to detect a broad range of molecular targets. Therefore, most studies have focused on the presence of ctDNA mutations in a comprehensive set of genes to highlight tumor heterogeneity and demonstrate clonal evolution over the course of disease progression, wrote the researchers. In these types of studies, ddPCR technology has been performed in order to validate NGS results and to follow-up the disease. Thus, [next-generation sequencing] has been combined with ddPCR for liquid biopsy analysis.

The researchers highlighted one study of 51 patients that used somatic mutations in ctDNA to identify patients who would likely relapse following surgical intervention, tumor tissue whole-exome sequencing revealed different somatic mutations that would likely be detected in ctDNA. Using ddPCR, they focused on alterations in KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA both prior to and after tumor resection in localized PDAC. There were alterations found in 43% of patients, and analyses revealed that patients with ctDNA in their plasma after resection were at a higher risk of relapse.

Reference

Huerta M, Rosell S, Sabater L, et al. Circulating tumor DNA detection by digital-droplet PCR in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a systematic review. Cancers. 2021:13(5):994. doi: 10.3390/cancers13050994

Read more:

Measuring ctDNA With ddPCR May Help Drive Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer - AJMC.com Managed Markets Network

Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Segmentation by Key Companies, Key Regions, Types and Application segmentation History and Global Forecast 2021-2027

A comprehensive study of the Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market has recently been added by Infinity Business Insights to its massive database. An expert team of researchers sheds light on various dynamics of the global market such as strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, drivers, and restraints.

The global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market development status and recent innovative trends are also explained for better business perception. The global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million with a CAGR of xx% during 2021-2027. This global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market research report provides detailed timeline for different global Industry segments and sub-segments. Different platforms which are boosting the performance of global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market are provided in this analytical report.

Get Sample Copy Of This Report + All Important-Charts @ Click Here.

Major industry Players:

Arab Yoga Foundation (AYF), Soul Warrior, Sukoun, Aura Wellness, Intouch Clinic, Landmark Fitness Ltd, Osana Family Wellness, Cairo Osteopathy, Blue Tree Clinics, House of Nature Medical Center, Zen Yoga, Salmiya SKY Meditation Centre, Jordan Chiropracti

Furthermore, it includes widespread qualitative and quantitative insights into the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market. It offers a complete valuation of the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Industry including the current status of the global market, historical records, and future developments of the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market. The global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market research report offers a basic outline for driving the flow of the businesses at various stages of the businesses. In order to provide an easy and effective outlook for the businesses, it offers analytical data presented in a systematic and professional manner.

Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine industry -By Application:

Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine industry By Product:

The major geographies have been covered through analysis such as North America, Latin America, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and India to observe the various changes in the global market over time. Along with the historical developments of the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market, it offers futuristic prospects for the growth of the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market. It makes use of various analytical tools and some standard operating methodologies for setting the framework of global businesses.

Get flat 20% discount For Early Buyers @ Click Here.

For achieving the outcomes in the businesses, it offers lists of different effective sales patterns and methodologies. The global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market study estimates the factors which are fueling the market status and stand up the market at the global level. The competitive landscape of the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market has been provided by explaining the key players functioning in different global regions.

Technological advancements, tools, and different policies which have a positive impact on the global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine market are also mentioned in the research report. Different business strategies carried out by competitors have been listed at the end of the report.

The global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine research report explores about following pointers:

About Us:

Infinity Business Insights is a market research company that offers market and business research intelligence all around the world. We are specialized in offering services in various industry verticals to recognize their highest-value chance, address their most analytical challenges, and alter their work. We attain particular and niche demands of the industry while stabilizing the quantum of standard with specified time and trace crucial movement at both the domestic and universal levels. The particular products and services provided by Infinity Business Insights cover vital technological, scientific, and economic developments in industrial, pharmaceutical, and high technology companies.

Contact Us:

Amit J

Sales Coordinator

+1-518-300-3575

Go here to read the rest:

Global Integrative Health or Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market Estimated to Soar Higher During 2021-2027 | Top Players Arab Yoga...

Introduction

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional perception associated with actual or underlying tissue pathology. It has become an important healthcare and social problem for its high incidence, great influence on quality of life and high medical costs. It was estimated that more than 20% of the population visit the clinic with pain as the main complaint every year.1,2 Studies have shown that patients with pain are at risk for illness absenteeism and poor health-related quality of life. An assessment of health care spending in the United States estimates that the annual cost of treating pain is $ 635 billion.3

Due to the complex cause and recurrent symptom, the targets of treatment options for pain are poor. As the most commonly used treatment, medicine (eg, muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can quickly alleviate acute pain, but its side effects can not be ignored.4 So seeking for effective complementary and alternative therapies (C&AT) attracts both patients and practitioners. Acupuncture, as a component of traditional Chinese medicine, has been extensively used in the treatment of pain for more than 3000 years, and hundreds of clinical and experimental studies were published during the last decade, it is a need for reviewing the study status to provide the reference for future studies. This study aims to scientifically collect the literature of acupuncture for pain from 2010 to 2020, including clinical research and animal experiments, review the research status, analyze the research trends and hot spots, and explore the potential problems in this field, so as to promote future research and clinical application.

In this study, we adopted the Web of Science core collection database as our database because it provided references that have been compiled according to the requirements of CiteSpace software for formatting references used for co-citation analysis. Web of Science also has a wide range of references, which may have higher citation rates. Therefore, this database was appropriate for our study.

We selected a core collection of databases from the Web of Science for studies on acupuncture for pain. The data search strategy included the topic acupuncture and pain, with the publication period of the literature ranging from 2010 to 2020. We excluded articles that could not be obtained as full texts and repeated publications. There were no restrictions on language, type of document and type of research including interventions, mechanisms, diagnosis, and other related studies.

We used CiteSpace 5.6 and Excel 2019 to analyze data for articles used in the study. Our analysis included the following: (1) descriptive statistical analysis, descriptive analysis of the annual publication volume, journals, countries, institutions, authors, references, and keywords; (2) co-occurrence analysis, a co-occurrence map for countries, institutions, author cooperation networks, keywords and burst keywords was drawn. A cooperative analysis of institutions and authors was based on all authors, and the section of cited authors was extracted by the first author for analysis. Keywords were analyzed by extracting keywords listed in selected articles. We directly analyzed the original keywords in the data set and supplementary keywords in the database; (3) cluster analysis which involved clustering co-citations of articles to investigate changes in research topics over time.

Research quality was controlled through the following methods: (1) formulation of strict search terms to ensure recall rate, (2) research results for the final knowledge map were confirmed by experts in relevant fields to verify guidance of research conclusions for clinical practice.

A total of 4227 articles were used in this study. The number of articles published each year is shown in Figure 1. The number of articles published increased from 292 in 2010 to 442 in 2020, indicating that the number of publications is increasing but fluctuating.

Figure 1 The number of acupuncture treatment for pain publications from 2010 to 2020.

The number of journals that published 4227 articles on acupuncture treatment for pain was 850. The ten most active journals are listed in Table 1 and publishers of these journals were mostly located in the United States or England. Most of the articles were published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Evid Based Complement Alternat Med), followed by the Journal of Acupuncture in Medicine (Acupunct Med) and the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (J Altern Complem Med). Furthermore, we found that the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) with the highest IF is a leading journal and database for systematic reviews in health care, with an IF of 7.89.

Table 1 The Top 10 Journals with the Highest Frequency of Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

The analysis of co-citation of journals indicates a distribution of significant knowledge sources in a particular field. Results of our statistical analysis revealed that the total number of journals that published articles on acupuncture treatment for pain was 963. The most frequently cited journals were Pain, followed by the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (J Altern Complem Med), Evid-based Compl Alt (Tables 2 and 3). In terms of centrality, the top 5 journals were: Pain, Journal of Neuroscience (J Neurosci), Journal of Applied Physiology (J Appl Physiol), Journal of Advanced Nursing (J Adv Nurs) and Brain Research.

Table 2 The Top 5 Cited Journals with the Highest Frequency of Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Table 3 Top 5 Cited Journals with the Highest Centrality Associated with Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

We used CiteSpace to generate a map of countries with 85 nodes and 369 links. The size of nodes in the cooperation graph indicated the number of articles published by a country, and the links between nodes represented the strength and time of the cooperative relationship (Table 4 and Figure 2). A total of 4227 articles on acupuncture treatment for pain have been published in 85 countries. The top 5 countries have published 3457 articles, constituting 81.78% of the total publications. The China accounted for 29.62% (1252/4227) of the total publications, followed by the United States (27.04%), South Korea (10.39%), England (8.75%) and Germany (5.98%). The top five countries with centrality were the United States (0.46), England (0.27), China (0.16), Italy (0.12) and Germany (0.09).

Table 4 Top 5 Countries Related to Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Figure 2 A country cooperation map related to acupuncture treatment for pain research from 2010 to 2020.

We used CiteSpace to generate agency maps with 457 nodes and 1950 links. Agency maps indicated that the 4227 articles were submitted by 457 scientific research institutions. The top 5 institutions based on the number of publications included: Kyung Hee University (5.39%), Beijing University Chinese Medicine (3.24%), Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (3.10%), Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (2.82%) and China Medical University (2.77%) (Table 5 and Figure 3). The top 5 institutions in centrality were Kyung Hee University, University of Maryland, China Medical University, Harvard university and Beijing University Chinese Medicine.

Table 5 Top 5 Institutions Related to Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Figure 3 An institution cooperation map related to acupuncture treatment for pain research from 2010 to 2020.

CiteSpace software was used to generate a co-authors map showing 565 nodes and 1675 links. The size of nodes in the cooperation graph represented the number of articles published by an author, and the link between them reflected the strength of their cooperative relationship (Table 6 and Figure 4). A total of 4227 articles were published by 565 authors. Lee MS was the most active author in this research field with 51 articles, followed by Liang FR (49 articles) and MacPherson H (48 articles).

Table 6 Top 5 Active Authors Related to Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Figure 4 A coauthor map related to acupuncture treatment for pain research from 2010 to 2020.

CiteSpace was used to generate a co-authors map displaying 853 nodes and 6914 links. The size of nodes represented the number of author citations and the link between them indicated the strength of co-citation (Table 7). The top 5 most cited authors were MacPherson H (577), Han JS (534), Vickers AJ (500), Linde K (420), and Ernst E (383). The top 5 authors in centrality were Kong J, Itoh K, Cherkin DC, Lund Irene, and White P.

Table 7 Top 5 Cited Authors Related to Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Co-citation implies that two articles appear together in the reference list of a third cited article thus the two articles form a co-citation relationship. Co-citation suggests that the cited literature and corresponding research are related in content, and the literature usually contains high-quality content which has significant influence in a particular field of research. Moreover, the relationship between literature co-citation is likely to change with time. Study of the network for literature co-citation can facilitate investigation of the developments and evolution in a specific discipline. A total of 99,873 reference articles were extracted from the 4227 articles to analyze cited references. We considered 2010 to 2020 as our time span and a time slice of 1. Fifty most frequently cited or items which appeared were selected from each time slice to form a network diagram of cited references comprising 925 nodes and 5029 links. An analysis in terms of cocitation counts and centrality (Tables 8 and 9) revealed that the data on this topic over the past decade are generally in the form of 1) randomized trials, 2) meta-analysis, 3) research on the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia, and 4) placebo effect of acupuncture.513

Table 8 The Top 5 Cited References for the Highest Frequency of Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Table 9 The Top 5 Cited References for the Highest Centrality of Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

We applied a logarithmic likelihood ratio (LLR) algorithm to assess nominal terms extracted from the keyword list of articles to naming of clusters to explore research models and emerging trends in knowledge systems, and to obtain key information from cited references. Seventeen clusters were generated with a modularity value of 0.6822, indicating that clustering results were highly reliable (Figure 5). Silhouette was 0.3321, implying that the resulting network community structure was significant. Results proved that our cluster was reasonable. We have listed the first 8 clusters with the largest scale, and the number of articles represented the importance of the clustering domain obtained. The largest group was placebo effect, which consisted of 109 reference articles. Cluster # 4 knee osteoarthritis was drawn using cold colors to indicate that it was a new research direction that had recently emerged.

Figure 5 Reference cocitation map related to acupuncture treatment for pain research from 2010 to 2020.

Research frontiers can be identified by analyzing keywords. A keyword co-occurrence network containing 624 nodes and 6508 links was generated. Table 10 and Figure 6 represent a network of co-occurring keywords with high frequencies; the larger the character, the higher the frequency of the keyword. The most widely used keywords related to acupuncture treatment for pain over the last few years were acupuncture, pain and electroacupuncture.

Table 10 Top 10 Keywords Related to Acupuncture Treatment for Pain

Figure 6 Keyword co-occurrence map related to acupuncture treatment for pain research from 2010 to 2020.

Burst keywords were automatically generated by the software based on the keywords in the list, used to record a keyword that changes greatly within a short period of time. It is considered to be another crucial indicator of research hotspots or future trends. The top 20 keywords that were frequently cited over time are presented in Figure 7.

Figure 7 Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric study of acupuncture for pain management. In this study, we retrieved data from 4227 studies investigating the application of acupuncture for pain, published between 2010 and 2020. Data from these studies were analyzed using CiteSpace and Excel employing descriptive statistical, co-occurrence and cluster analyses.

We found a general increasing trend in acupuncture for pain publications from 2010 to 2020. The trend of increase in articles published can be divided into the following three stages: (1) the number of articles increased rapidly in 2010, reaching a first slight peak, and then declined in 2012; (2) number of articles increased steadily from 2012 to 2015, and decreased from 2015 to 2016; (3) the period from 2016 to 2019 was a rapid development period and reached a second peak in 2019. This trend was consistent with that observed in other research fields and can be well explained by the increased attention of researchers in this field.14

The top 10 academic journals published 1417 articles, accounting for 33.52% of all articles and suggesting that these top 10 journals had strong interest in articles regarding acupuncture treatment for pain research. According to the analysis of the cited journals, the top ranking for both frequency and centrality was Pain. A systematic review of available therapies for hip and knee osteoarthritis patients, which cited an article in the Pain journal was cited 942 times. This study updates the evidence to suggest that non-pharmacological therapies, including acupuncture, are effective in relieving patients pain symptoms.15 We established that most of these journals are relevant to complementary alternative therapies and pain research. These data will help future scholars to select appropriate journals when submitting articles in related fields.

Less collaborations were observed between countries/regions. Asia, as the birthplace of acupuncture, and developed countries, including the United States, were the main research forces related to acupuncture for the treatment of pain, suggesting that scientific research development is inseparable from economic conditions and academic atmosphere. However, global cooperation has not been formed. Cooperation among other countries was weak except for England where scientific cooperation was relatively close in recent years. This may be attributed to the geographical location of countries. Regarding institutions, it is interesting that Kyung Hee University was not only the most prolific institution but also the highest centrality institution, suggesting that Kyung Hee University is the most important institution for researching acupuncture treatment of pain. However, England and Germany, the top 5 countries with the highest number of publications, did not have any institution in the top 10 list. This may indicate that institutions conducting research in this field are relatively few in the country. In addition, cooperation among institutions was mostly limited to countries such as Beijing University Chinese Medicine, China Medical University and Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences which were among the top 5 institutions. The close cooperation between China scientific research institutions in recent years may also be one of the reasons for the increase in the number of articles published each year.

All of the top 5 active authors published at least 30 articles. A study conducted by Ernst et al, cited 101 times, suggested that apart from neck pain, there is little convincing evidence that acupuncture is effective in reducing pain.16 However, Zhang et al proposed that electroacupuncture combined with low dosages conventional analgesics can provide effective pain control.8 In addition, cooperative relationships among authors are largely confined to their respective institutions. This demonstrates that several authors tend to work with stable collaborative teams, and that cooperative networks for researchers in this field are highly correlated with the cooperative networks of corresponding institutions. Considering the co-cited authors, the top 5 authors with at least 383 co-citations made significant contributions to the field of acupuncture analgesia. A comprehensive analysis found that MacPherson H and Kong J were core strength researchers and their research had an important influence on the development of acupuncture treatment of pain. MacPherson H is mainly engaged in the evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture, and the neuroimaging research on the mechanism of acupuncture. In 2010, MacPherson H and colleagues present an updated reporting guideline, which stands for Revised Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture.17 Kong J mainly focuses on the research of acupuncture analgesia. For example, a study in 2020 identified the neural marker of functional magnetic resonance imaging-based migraine and examined its association with acupuncture treatment.18

Co-citation suggests that the cited literature and corresponding research are related in content, and the literature usually contains high-quality content which has significant influence in a particular field of research. Moreover, the relationship between literature co-citation is likely to change with time. The top 1 reference by frequency is a meta-analysis of individual patient data on acupuncture for chronic pain, which confirms the effectiveness of acupuncture for back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, and shoulder pain.5 The top 1 reference by centrality is a randomized controlled trial of acupuncture for chronic shoulder pain, indicating that acupuncture is an effective alternative to conventional orthopedic treatment for this condition.10 In addition, the extracted terms according to the LLR algorithm emphasize research characteristics and can provide the best results in terms of uniqueness and coverage of cluster-related topics. Cluster # 4 knee osteoarthritis was discovered as a research hotspot of researchers in recent years. For example, Tu et al assessed the efficacy of intensive acupuncture (3 times weekly for 8 weeks) versus sham acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) in 2020, based on their previous discussion of the efficacy of acupuncture at different frequencies in the treatment of KOA.19

Through analysing the keyword, research frontiers could be identified. Consistent with previous reports, low back pain in the current study is the most common pain disorder that uses acupuncture as an intervention.14 Randomized controlled trial was the most common research method with the strongest level of evidence to prove its efficacy. However, due to the particularity of the acupuncture operation, double-blinding is difficult to achieve; therefore, the placebo effect has attracted the attention of researchers, and this finding is consistent with our findings in the cited reference. In addition, a burst keyword can indicate cutting-edge research topics and reveal studies that have potential or are of interest. Research history of acupuncture treatment of pain can be drawn from the evolution of keywords used in these articles. For example, human brain and placebo needle were the earliest words to have an impact, while burden was widely carried out in 2017 and has since been used.

This study has used bibliometrics for the first time to perform a visual analysis of literature related to acupuncture for pain, summarized research status and key research forces in this field, and predicted the research trend. In addition, we have used a variety of methods to analyze data, which is suitable for multi-angle interpretation of conclusions. However, this study has limitations that need to be addressed. This study only analyzed the core collection database for Web of Science, because CiteSpace is currently unable to analyze cited references for other databases. It is anticipated that the improvement of this software will enable the expansion of the selection range for databases in the future.

In conclusion, this study reveals hot spots and frontier issues in the field of acupuncture for pain. The findings presented here are expected to promote the optimization of treatment options. The frontier issues in the field presented here will guide funding organizations to refocus their funding priorities.

C&AT, complementary and alternative therapies; LLR, logarithmic likelihood ratio; KOA, knee osteoarthritis.

The following information was supplied regarding data availability: the raw data can be directly obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) of Thomson Reuters.

Thanks to Prof. Chaomei Chen for opening the use of CiteSpace.

All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; agreed to submit to the current journal; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81673887), the National Science and Technology Support Program of the ministry of science and technology of China (2013BAI05B00), the Science and technology innovation capacity cultivation project of Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2020PY-LP-03). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest for this work.

1. Pergolizzi J, Ahlbeck K, Aldington D, et al. The development of chronic pain: physiological CHANGE necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Curr Med Res Opin. 2013;29(9):11271135. doi:10.1185/03007995.2013.810615

2. Langley PC. The prevalence, correlates and treatment of pain in the European Union. Curr Med Res Opin. 2011;27(2):463480. doi:10.1185/03007995.2010.542136

3. Gaskin DJ, Richard P. The economic costs of pain in the United States. J Pain. 2012;13(8):715724. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2012.03.009

4. Cohen SP, Hooten WM. Advances in the diagnosis and management of neck pain. BMJ. 2017;358:j3221. doi:10.1136/bmj.j3221

5. Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(19):14441453. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3654

6. Zhao ZQ. Neural mechanism underlying acupuncture analgesia. Prog Neurobiol. 2008;85(4):355375.

7. Haake M, Mller HH, Schade-Brittinger C, et al. German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for chronic low back pain: randomized, multicenter, blinded, parallel-group trial with 3 groups. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(17):18921898. doi:10.1001/Archinte.167.17.1892

8. Zhang R, Lao L, Ren K, Berman BM. Mechanisms of acupuncture-electroacupuncture on persistent pain. Anesthesiology. 2014;120(2):482503. doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000000101

9. Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Avins AL, et al. A randomized trial comparing acupuncture, simulated acupuncture, and usual care for chronic low back pain. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(9):858866. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.65

10. Molsberger AF, Schneider T, Gotthardt H, Drabik A. German Randomized Acupuncture Trial for chronic shoulder pain (GRASP) a pragmatic, controlled, patient-blinded, multi-centre trial in an outpatient care environment. Pain. 2010;151(1):146154. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2010.06.036

11. Harris RE, Zubieta JK, Scott DJ, Napadow V, Gracely RH, Clauw DJ. Traditional Chinese acupuncture and placebo (sham) acupuncture are differentiated by their effects on mu-opioid receptors (MORs). NeuroImage. 2009;47(3):10771085. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.05.083

12. Kietrys DM, Palombaro KM, Azzaretto E, et al. Effectiveness of dry needling for upper-quarter myofascial pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2013;43(9):620634. doi:10.2519/jospt.2013.4668

13. Lee JH, Choi TY, Lee MS, Lee H, Shin BC, Lee H. Acupuncture for acute low back pain: a systematic review. Clin J Pain. 2013;29(2):172185. doi:10.1097/AJP.0b013e31824909f9

14. Li R, Sun J, Hu H, et al. Research trends of acupuncture therapy on knee osteoarthritis from 2010 to 2019: a bibliometric analysis. J Pain Res. 2020;13:19011913. doi:10.2147/JPR.S258739

15. Zhang W, Nuki G, Moskowitz RW, et al. OARSI recommendations for the management of hip and knee osteoarthritis: part III: changes in evidence following systematic cumulative update of research published through January 2009. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2010;18(4):476499. doi:10.1016/j.joca.2010.01.013

16. Ernst E, Lee MS, Choi TY. Acupuncture: does it alleviate pain and are there serious risks? A review of reviews. Pain. 2011;152(4):755764. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2010.11.004

17. MacPherson H, Altman DG, Hammerschlag R, et al. Revised STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA): extending the CONSORT statement. PLoS Med. 2010;7(6):e1000261. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000261

18. Tu Y, Zeng F, Lan L, et al. An fMRI-based neural marker for migraine without aura. Neurology. 2020;94(7):e741e751. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000008962

19. Tu JF, Yang JW, Shi GX, et al. Efficacy of intensive acupuncture versus sham acupuncture in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2020.

Read more from the original source:

[Full text] Research Trends of Acupuncture Treatment | JPR - Dove Medical Press