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Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine >

2025 , Vol. 45 >Issue 3: 651 - 659

DOI: https://doi.org/10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2025.03.022

Acupuncture with different frequencies for tobacco dependence: a randomized controlled trial

  • Shumin CHEN ,
  • Zhenyu LIU ,
  • Jia JI ,
  • Jin CHANG ,
  • Zhihua LI ,
  • Yingying WANG ,
  • Jinsheng YANG
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  • 1 Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China
    2 Institute of Basic Theory for Chinese Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China

Received date: 2023-05-20

  Accepted date: 2023-11-30

  Online published: 2024-09-27

Supported by

Fund of Science and Technology Innovation Project of Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Project: Self-service Acupuncture Smoking Cessation Research and Development(CI2021A03506);Fund of Capital Health Development Special Research Project: Research on Development and Clinical Applicalion of Wrist Acupuncture Smoking Cessation Instrument(2022-1-4281)

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of different acupuncture frequencies on the abstinence rate which could be used as a reference for optimizing acupuncture cessation programs.
METHODS: From July 2018 to June 2022, a total of 220 smokers were recruited based on inclusion criteria and randomly divided into the high-frequency acupuncture group (HF group, n = 110): 5 times a week from the 1st to the 4th week, from weeks 5 to 8, three times a week and the low-frequency acupuncture group (LF group, n = 110): 3 times a week from the 1st to the 4th week, from weeks 5 to 8, twice a week, then treated for 8 weeks and follow-up at 1 month in Beijing.
RESULTS: In total, 162 subjects completed the whole study with a drop-out rate of 20.45%. The expiratory CO point abstinence rate was HF group 53/110 (48.18%) vs LF group 41/110 (37.27%) in Week 8 (P = 0.102) and HF group 46/110 (41.82%) vs LF group 45/110 (40.91%) in Week 12 (P = 0.891) and the HF acupuncture and LF acupuncture were nearly equal in the 8-week abstinence rate. In addition, both HF and LF acupuncture significantly reduced Fagerstrőm test for nicotine dependence scale (FTND) scores (P < 0.05), Minnesota nicotine withdrawal scale (MNWS) scores (P < 0.05), and Brief Questionnaire of Smoking Urges scale (QSU-Brief) scores (P < 0.05), but HF acupuncture showed some superiority over LF acupuncture in relieving patients' smoking cravings (P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: The study initially showed that both high-frequency acupuncture and low-frequency acupuncture treatment were safe and effective on smoking cessation for 8 weeks, but high-frequency acupuncture was advantageous in reducing smoking cravings. More accurate acupuncture frequency needs to be validated through larger clinical studies to optimize acupuncture smoking cessation programs.

Key words： acupuncture; acupuncture frequency; tobacco dependence; smoking cessation

Cite this article

Shumin CHEN , Zhenyu LIU , Jia JI , Jin CHANG , Zhihua LI , Yingying WANG , Jinsheng YANG . Acupuncture with different frequencies for tobacco dependence: a randomized controlled trial[J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2025 , 45(3) : 651 -659 . DOI: 10.19852/j.cnki.jtcm.2025.03.022

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