Adding acupuncture to donepezil improved Alzheimer's test scores in a review
Trials in Alzheimer's disease favored acupuncture plus donepezil over donepezil alone on cognitive scores. The abstract leaves treatment duration and safety results unreported and calls for stronger trials.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
In patients with Alzheimer's disease, pooled trials favored adding acupuncture to donepezil on several cognitive tests and scores concerning daily activities and behavior. These results describe differences on assessment scales, rather than evidence of reversing the disease. Treatment duration and adverse-event findings are absent from the abstract, and the authors seek larger, higher-quality trials.
This abstract-based summary cannot assess the durability or safety of the combination. Adverse events were listed as an outcome, but no safety results were reported; stronger randomized evidence was explicitly requested.
What researchers found
Mini-Mental State Examination
Acupuncture plus donepezil versus donepezil alone: mean difference 3.28 points, 95% confidence interval 1.81–4.75. Assessment timing was not reported in the abstract.
Several scales favored the combination
The Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores were higher with combined treatment. Other reported scales moved in the favorable direction for cognitive difficulties, daily activities and behavior, although the abstract does not explain their practical significance.
Scores leave important questions open
The review's stated clinical efficacy rate is not defined in the abstract. Separating that outcome from named cognitive tests helps avoid treating all reported improvements as equivalent evidence of meaningful changes in patients' everyday lives.
The original publication
Effectiveness of acupuncture combined with donepezil for Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Wu Y, Zhan Y, Zhu W et al.
Medicine (Baltimore) · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40489837
- Record checked
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