Acupuncture therapies for psoriasis vulgaris: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

The purpose of this review was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapies in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris. Embase, CENTRAL, PubMed, AMED, CINAHL, CNKI, CQVIP, CBM, and Wanfang databases were searched from inceptions to May 2013 for prospective randomized controlled trials evaluating acupuncture therapies for psoriasis vulgaris. No language limitations were applied. Studies were assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The primary outcome was Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score. Six studies (involving 522 participants) met the eligibility criteria for this review, and 5 were included in quantitative analysis. Due to the diversity of interventions, comparators and reported outcomes, meta-analysis was not possible. Results from single studies produced conflicting results for the outcomes PASI reduction, lesion reduction (non-PASI), PASI score, and relapse rate. There is some evidence of benefit of acupuncture therapies for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris. However, the conclusions are limited by the small number of included trials and conflicting results from single studies. More research is needed to clarify the effect of acupuncture therapies for psoriasis vulgaris.