Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Efficacy for Depression-Associated Chronic Pain

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Hui Zhao, published on figshare in June 2026, synthesizes evidence from 10 randomized controlled trials involving 761 participants. The analysis compares the efficacy and safety of acupuncture versus conventional medication for treating depression-associated chronic pain. It includes meta-regression and sensitivity analyses performed using Stata15.1.

Use Cases

• Compare treatment efficacy for depressive symptoms based on standardized mean differences reported in the meta-analysis
• Assess the safety profile of acupuncture versus medication based on relative risk data
• Investigate the influence of treatment duration on outcomes using subgroup analysis results
• Evaluate publication bias and evidence certainty using the GRADE framework described in the methods

Strengths

• Includes 10 randomized controlled trials with 761 total participants
• Employs rigorous Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 and GRADE evidence certainty assessments
• Reports specific effect sizes (SMD: -0.72 for depression, -0.85 for pain) with 95% confidence intervals

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• The dataset scope is limited to a single PDF file of 154.6 KB

Provenance

Source

Hui Zhao via figshare

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from eight databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang Data, CNKI, VIP database, SinoMed) up to March 2025.

Time Range

Studies from database inception to March 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 05:23:02; freshness should be verified