Acupuncture for substance use disorders: a protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Abstract

Introduction: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are common and highly disabling, causing serious long-term harm to people's health. Despite the existence of evidence-based interventions for treating SUDs, many individuals remain symptomatic regardless of treatment, and relapse is common. Acupuncture has been examined for the treatment of SUDs, but available evidence is mixed. This comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide updated evidence which will include both English and Chinese studies to investigate the effectiveness and safety of different types of acupuncture for the treatment of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use disorders.

Methods and analysis: This protocol is guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis Protocols. A thorough search for relevant studies in multiple electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP, Wan-fang and China Biomedical Database) and clinical trial registries will be conducted. Population-Intervention-Comparator-Outcomes-Study design criteria will be adopted for study inclusion. Only randomised controlled trials analysing the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for SUDs will be included. Two reviewers will independently conduct the study selection, data extraction and quality assessment, and disagreements will be solved by a third senior reviewer or by contacting study authors. Frequency and quantity of substance use, abstinence rate, withdrawal symptoms, treatment drop-out and relapse rates are primary outcomes. Functional status, health-related quality of life and adverse events are secondary outcomes. The risk of bias and quality of evidence will be assessed by the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomised trials and guidelines of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation working group, respectively. When sufficient data is available, subgroup analyses will be performed to further compare the differences in the primary and secondary outcomes based on the type of substance use, acupuncture, co-intervention status, comparison group, measurement tools, length of follow-up, risk of bias of included studies and countries of studies conducted.

Ethics and dissemination: No private information is used in the entire process of the systematic review. Therefore, ethical approval is not required. Findings of the proposed systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and/or disseminated through conference presentations.

Protocol registration number: The protocol has been archived in the Prospero repository (PROSPERO 2024 CRD42024566389).