Acupuncture in intractable epilepsy: lack of effect on health-related quality of life

The objective of this study was to assess the effect on health-related qual ity of life of acupuncture and sham acupuncture as adjunctive treatment in intractable epilepsy. We performed a randomized controlled trail with two p arallel treatment arms at The National Center for Epilepsy in Norway, a com prehensive epilepsy center. Thirty-four patients with long-standing drug re sistant epilepsy completed the study. The intervention consisted of 20 acup uncture treatments (bilateral needling of three acupoints plus one or two i ndividually chosen points) or sham acupuncture (bilateral needling with sma ller needles of three points outside the traditional meridians) over 8 week s. The main outcome measures were changes in mean health-related quality of life scores for the two groups after 8 weeks, using the 89-item Quality of Life in Epilepsy (QOLIE-89) questionnaire. We found no difference between the acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups in score changes in any dimensi on of the QOLIE-89 questionnaire, despite testing a large number of dimensi ons. We also found no change in QOLIE-89 scores between baseline and 8 week s in either groups. In conclusion, we could not demonstrate a significant e ffect of traditional acupuncture or sham acupuncture on the health-related quality of life of patients with intractable epilepsy. (C) 2000 BEA Trading Ltd.