Oct 30 (Reuters) – Acupuncture may help relieve fatigue in
women who have had breast cancer, as well as easing anxiety,
depression and quality of life, according to a UK study.
Cancer and cancer treatments can cause chronic pain,
psychological stress and anemia, all of which contribute to
fatigue. In addition, people who are nauseated after chemo might
not be getting the most nutritious diet for maintaining energy
levels.
For the research, which appeared in the Journal of Clinical
Oncology, Alexander Molassiotis from the University of
Manchester and his colleagues tracked 227 women with moderate or
severe cancer-related fatigue treated with six weekly
acupuncture sessions and another 75 fatigued women who didn’t
get acupuncture.
The women had all received chemotherapy for breast cancer in
the five years before the study, and most had felt chronically
tired for a year or more. Participants were given a booklet
about cancer-related fatigue when they started the study.
After six weeks, general fatigue had dropped by almost four
point on a 0-20 scale among women who had acupuncture, compared
to a less than one point decline in the comparison group.
“Acupuncture is an effective intervention for managing the
symptom of chemo-related fatigue and improving patients’ quality
of life,” wrote Molassiotis and his colleagues.
The improvement was “mild to moderate,” according to Amit
OVRSood at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota – not enough
to allow someone who is stuck in bed to start walking, but maybe
enough to get people who are too tired to exercise to start
doing some activity.
Anxiety and depression scores, measured from 0 to 21,
dropped by two additional points post-acupuncture, compared to
scores in women given educational materials only. Emotional and
physical well-being got a greater boost with acupuncture therapy
as well, Malassiotis and his team found.
The study did not prove it was the needles themselves that
boosted the women’s energy levels, and researchers couldn’t tell
how much of the benefit might have been due to the “placebo
effect” – feeling better because they expected to.
According to an editorial published with the study, close to
one-third of cancer patients have persistent fatigue that may
continue for years after treatment. Doctors typically encourage
moderate exercise and talk therapy to improve their energy,
wrote psychologist Julienne Bower, from the University of
California, Los Angeles.
But Carol Enderlin, at the University of Arkansas for
Medical Sciences, said acupuncture may help as an add-on.
She recommended “maintaining activity to tolerance, unless
there are other problems with that, good nutrition, getting
adequate sleep, and if the fatigue continues, considering there
might be an alternative that complements those things.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/qPtMdm
(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health;
editing by Elaine Lies)
