NCT01102075

The Effect of Electroacupuncture on Obesity

The Effect of Low Frequency Electroacupuncture on Waist Circumference in Obesity-Three Arm Randomized Controlled Trial, Pilot Study

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 39 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Kyunghee University Medical Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 16 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether electroacupuncture is effective on waist circumference in obesity.

Detailed description

Many studies have reported on the beneficial effects of acupuncture for obesity, although some negative reports also existed.(Wang F. et al. 2008)Recently conducted systematic review of Pittler and Ernst reported that there was insufficient, but not conclusive evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture and acupressure for weight loss. However, most of these studies had methodological limitation, such as lack of adequate control group or unclear specific effect of electroacupuncture alone because auricular acupuncture was administered as well. In this sudy, we had three-arm randomized controlled trial(with sham control group) to investigate whether electroacupuncture is effective in the treatment of obesity.

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Electroacupuncture	We used Electrical stimulator(STN-111,Stratek)with a frequency of 24 Hz and intensity of 0.27-1.3mA(tolerable strength), asymmetric interactive pulse with continuous stimulation by the pulse generator. The participants were given treatment twice a week for 30 minutes for 5 weeks(10 sessions) by practitioner.(n=13)
DEVICE	Sham electroacupuncture procedure	We used same electroacupuncture device, number and type of needle, duration, frequency of sessions and practitioner as for the EA treatment. Specific details are as described in the arm description.(n=13)

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-01-01
• Primary completion: 2010-05-01
• Completion: 2010-05-01
• First posted: 2010-04-12
• Last updated: 2010-04-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: South Korea