Study on Hay Fever Acupuncture Helps Lower Antihistamine Treatments

Acupuncture relieves hay fever
Scientists at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin in Berlin had previously shown that regular acupuncture treatments during the hay fever season reduce allergiespecific symptoms. In a secondary analysis of the data, they were able to show that acupuncture also helps to reduce the frequency and duration of drug revenues.

In alternative medicine, nerve pain is often treated with acupuncture. (Image: Africa Studio / fotolia.com)

Around 18% of German hay fever patients can be treated with acupuncture to alleviate their allergy symptoms. Scientists at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin in Berlin had already been able to show in the ACUpuncture in Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis (ACUSAR) study in 2013 that acupuncture treatment can alleviate the symptoms. Now they re-evaluated the data in a secondary analysis. (1)

To do so, they evaluated data from 414 patients. These had been randomized to three groups. Subjects were given either acupuncture (n = 201) or Scehein acupuncture (n = 90) treatments for eight weeks at the beginning of the pollen season. The third group (n = 98) could only resort to an emergency medication in the form of oral antihistamines, which should not exceed a maximum dose of 20 mg daily. The oral antihistamines were also approved in the other two groups. The scientists advised the patient to use cetirizine-containing preparations. In particularly severe cases oral corticosteroids were allowed.

After eight weeks, the subjects changed the group. Subjects in the third group received twelve acupuncture sessions for eight weeks, while participants in the first two groups received no treatment but were able to use oral emergency medication as needed. The questionnaire documented the allergen-specific symptoms and quality of life as well as details of the potential use of antihistamines at the beginning, after the eighth as well as after the sixteenth week.

Compared to the start of the study, in the acupuncture group after eight weeks the days of medication intake were reduced by 0.92 days. There was a slight increase of 4.22 days in the placebo acupuncture group. In the treatment-free group, the number of days with emergency medication requirements actually increased significantly by 9.52.

In the acupuncture group, the number of days on which antihistamines were used was reduced by 4.49 days during the first eight weeks compared to the placebo acupuncture group and by 9.15 days compared to the no treatment group. Also, the number of patients in the acupuncture group receiving antihistamines was lower than those in the other two groups (acupuncture: 60%, placebo acupuncture: 71%, no treatment: 82%). Source: Carstens Foundation