Acupuncture can help boost sleep quality in Parkinson's disease: Study

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder that impacts movement and can lead to cognitive changes. While there is no cure for Parkinson's, treatments are available to slow its progression and alleviate symptoms.

Parkinson’s disease worsens over time, but symptoms can be managed with medications, surgical treatments such as deep brain stimulation, and occupational or physical therapies.

While these therapies help with symptoms, they can also contribute to reducing sleep quality in people with Parkinson’s disease. Poor sleep can worsen Parkinson’s symptoms and overall contribute to a worsened quality of life.

To address this, researchers in China conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in improving sleep for Parkinson’s patients.

The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

In the study, researchers studied 78 participants aged 30 to 80 with moderate to severe sleep issues who were taking anti-Parkinson’s medication. Before treatment, participants completed the Parkinson’s Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS) questionnaire to assess their sleep quality.

Participants were randomly divided into two groups: one received real acupuncture, while the other received placebo acupuncture. Both groups underwent 30-minute acupuncture sessions three times a week for four weeks. They completed the PDSS again after four weeks and at an eight-week follow-up.

The real acupuncture group showed significant improvements in sleep quality, with a 29.65-point increase in PDSS scores after four weeks, compared to a 10.47-point increase in the sham group. The real acupuncture group continued to show improvement at the eight-week follow-up, while the sham group did not.

Additionally, the real acupuncture group experienced reductions in both motor and non-motor skill severity. No participants had adverse side effects, leading researchers to conclude that acupuncture is a safe and effective therapy for improving sleep quality and overall quality of life in people with Parkinson’s disease.

“Acupuncture offers significant, lasting improvements in sleep quality for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Notably, acupuncture has no side effects and does not interfere with existing medications, making this a groundbreaking discovery. While it should not replace traditional Parkinson’s disease treatments, acupuncture can serve as an effective complementary therapy,” said the authors.

Reference: Yan M, Fan J, Liu X, et al. Acupuncture and Sleep Quality Among Patients With Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(6):e2417862. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.17862