Effects of acupuncture and nicotine patch on smoking: a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial

Runjing Dai; Dong Ren; Binning Li; Yanfeng Zhang; Xiaojing Ma; Xiangrong Zhang; Hailiang Zhang; Lina Zhang; Chenchen Zeng; Xiaomei Jiang; Shisan Bao; Jingchun Fan

doi:10.3389/fmed.2024.1418967

Effects of acupuncture and nicotine patch on smoking: a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Jul 17:11:1418967. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1418967. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Runjing Dai^#^{1

2}, Dong Ren^#³, Binning Li⁴, Yanfeng Zhang⁵, Xiaojing Ma³, Xiangrong Zhang⁶, Hailiang Zhang², Lina Zhang¹, Chenchen Zeng¹, Xiaomei Jiang³, Shisan Bao², Jingchun Fan²

Affiliations

¹ Hospital Infection-Control Department, Xi'an Aerospace General Hospital, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
² School of Public Health, Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
³ Department of Psychosomatic and Sleep Medicine, Gansu Gem Flower Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
⁴ Library, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
⁵ School of Acupuncture and Tuina, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
⁶ Department of Chinese Medicine, Health Center of Hekou Town, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate the effects of acupuncture and/or nicotine patches on smoking cessation.

Methods: Eighty-eight participants were randomly allocated into four groups: acupuncture combined with nicotine patch (ACNP), acupuncture combined with sham nicotine patch (ACSNP), sham acupuncture combined with nicotine patch (SACNP), and sham acupuncture combined with sham nicotine patch (SACSNP). The primary outcome was self-reported smoking abstinence verified with expiratory Carbon Monoxide (CO) after 8 weeks of treatment. The modified Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) score, Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale (MNWS), and the Brief Questionnaire of Smoking Urge (QSU-Brief) score were used as secondary indicators. SPSS 26.0 and Prism 9 software were used for statistical analyses.

Results: Seventy-eight participants completed the study. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics at baseline across the four groups. At the end of treatment, there was a statistically significant difference (χ² = 8.492, p = 0.037) in abstaining rates among the four groups. However, there were no significant differences in the reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked daily (p = 0.111), expiratory CO (p = 0.071), FTND score (p = 0.313), and MNWS score (p = 0.088) among the four groups. There was a statistically significant difference in QUS-Brief score changes among the four groups (p = 0.005). There was no statistically significant interaction between acupuncture and nicotine patch.

Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with nicotine replacement patch therapy was more effective for smoking cessation than acupuncture alone or nicotine replacement patch alone. No adverse reactions were found in the acupuncture treatment process.

Clinical trial registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=61969, identifier ChiCTR2100042912.

Keywords: acupuncture; combined treatment; nicotine patch; randomized clinical trial; smoking cessation; withdraw syndrome.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Gansu Provincial Department of Education university teachers innovation fund project [grant no. 2024A-084], Gansu Provincial Science and Technology plan (Joint research Fund) project [grant no. 23JRRA1528], Natural Science Foundation Project of Gansu Province [grant no. 22JR5RA589] and the Innovation Fund of Postgraduate, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine [grant no. 2021CX67].