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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Movement Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1550250
This article is part of the Research Topic Sleep disturbances in Parkinson's disease and dementia View all articles
Acupuncture as an Adjunctive Therapy for Sleep Fragmentation in Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study Based on Polysomnography
Provisionally accepted- 1 Second Clinical Medical School, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2 Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China
- 3 Longsai Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
- 4 Shenzhen Frontier in Chinese Medicine Research Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China
Objective: This pilot study aims to assess the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness. of acupuncture as an adjunct therapy for improving sleep quality in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) who are experiencing fragmented sleep disorders.Method: This pilot study recruited a small cohort of 11 patients diagnosed. with PD, each undergoing a structured 4-week acupuncture intervention comprising three sessions per week. Outcome measures included polysomnography (PSG) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), both of which were evaluated at baseline and following the completion of the 4-week acupuncture regimen.Result: Post-intervention analysis showed trends towards improved sleep continuity with statistical significance in the sleep arousal index (p = 0.001), sleep arousal frequency (p = 0.001), and PSQI scores (p = 0.026) compared to baseline measurements . Importantly, no adverse events or complications were reported throughout the study period.The results indicate that acupuncture provides preliminary evidence supporting its use as a feasible adjunctive therapy for improving sleep quality in individuals with PD. Further research is required to evaluate the long-term efficacy of acupuncture and to examine its practicality and feasibility for integration into established PD management protocols.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Parkinson's disease, Polysomnography, sleep fragmentation, sleep disorder
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sheng, Sun, Liu, Zhu, Zhang and Jin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qinhong Zhang, Shenzhen Frontier in Chinese Medicine Research Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China
Xiaoqing Jin, Zhejiang Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.