Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for Functional Constipation

A multi-center clinical trial done recently by us(NCT00508482) shows that needling on ST25 has the same effect as lactulose in unaided self-defecation frequency of a week and has better effect in symptoms improvement (in press). The object is to evaluate whether acupuncture is effective for functional constipation. As an explanatory research, it took one single point as its intervention and sham acupuncture as its control group (patients were blinded). On the basis of its confirmed effect, we are taking a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to further evaluate whether acupuncture is more effective than routine treatment. Acupuncture prescriptions used in this trial are individually prescribed according to syndrome differentiation, which can improve clinical effect. .