A Study of Acupuncture for Treating Asthma

Summary

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease with a low clinical control rate, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic strategies. Recurrent asthma attacks emotional symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, etc. On the contrary, symptoms such as anxiety and depression worsen asthma control. Acupuncture is commonly applied as an effective traditional Chinese medical therapy for asthma. Acupoints GV14, BL13 and BL12 are adopted for the intervention of asthma. GV20 and GV29 are selected to improve emotional symptoms including depression. Nevertheless, standardized therapeutic regimens of acupuncture for asthma and its concomitant emotional symptoms are still lacking. 180 patients with mild to moderate asthma will be recruited in this multicenter randomized controlled trial, randomly assigned to the true acupuncture group, sham acupuncture group and usual care group. The primary outcome is the score of the Asthma Control Test (ACT). Secondary outcomes include the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), pulmonary function, and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). The superiority of combined acupuncture therapy in improving asthma control, relieving negative emotions, and enhancing quality of life is to be verified in this study, with high quality evidence for acupuncture treatment of asthma thereby to be provided.

Conditions

• Asthma Chronic
• Asthma (Diagnosis)
• Asthma

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Acupuncture

Patients are seated with routine disinfection of acupoints. Dazhui (GV14) is perpendicularly needled 0.5-1 cun; Feishu (BL13) and Fengmen (BL12) are perpendicularly needled toward the spine for 0.5-0.8 cun; Baihui (GV20) is needled subcutaneously at 15-30° to the scalp for 0.5 cun; Yintang (GV29) is obliquely needled downward for 0.3-0.5 cun after pinching local skin . Even reinforcing-reducing manipulation is adopted. Each treatment lasts 30 minutes, three times weekly (no treatment on Sundays) for 10 consecutive sessions. Eye masks are used, with separation of operators and outcome assessors.

PROCEDURE

Sham Acupuncture

Patients are seated with routine disinfection of acupoints. Streitberger non-penetrating placebo needles are applied to the same acupoints as true acupuncture (Dazhui GV14, Feishu BL13, Fengmen BL12, Baihui GV20, Yintang GV29) with identical position, duration and frequency. Each sham session lasts 30 minutes, three times weekly (no treatment on Sundays) for 10 consecutive sessions. Eye masks are used, with separation of operators and outcome assessors.

OTHER

Usual Care

Patients receive routine asthma pharmacological treatment without additional acupuncture intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• Longhua Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Shanghai Yueyang Integrated Medicine Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lei-Miao Yin, MD · Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Ping Yin, MD · Longhua Hospital

• Xin-Yun Huang, MD · Yueyang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese medicine

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-05-21

Primary Completion

2028-03-31

Completion

2028-09-30