Acupuncture Effective for Post Menopausal Insomnia

 

I’m not sure where this article is from, perhaps South America?  A pretty well done study, at least from the Abstract and includes not only depression and quality of life questionnaires, but PSG, a polysomnography exam and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality exam to evaluate the stages of sleep.  They had a total of 5 weeks of acupuncture , two sessions a week.  So they had a lot of visits, but not dozens.  So nice!

Climacteric. 2012 Sep 3.
Acupuncture improves sleep in postmenopause in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Hachul H, Garcia TK, Maciel AL, Yagihara F, Tufik S, Bittencourt L.
Abstract
Background Insomnia increases in frequency as women approach and pass through menopause. Studies have not shown acupuncture efficacy for insomnia in postmenopausal women. ..We performed ten sessions of acupuncture and ‘sham’ acupuncture during a period of 5 weeks. A polysomnography exam (PSG) and questionnaires (WHOQOL-BREF, Beck Depression Inventory and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were completed by all patients before and after the treatment period. Results:Anthropometric, polysomnographic, and questionnaire data were similar among the groups at baseline. Comparison of baseline and post-treatment data of the acupuncture group showed that treatment resulted in significantly lower scores on the Pittsburgh Questionnaire and an improvement in psychological WHOQOL. The acupuncture group had a higher percentage of the N3 + 4 stage than the sham group in PSG findings. Conclusion Acupuncture was effective in improving reported sleep quality and quality of life in postmenopausal women with insomnia.