Evaluation of Clinical Effect of Acupuncture on Chronic Prostatitis: Meta Analysis

This study aims to evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in CP treatment and assess the quality of clinical literature. Controlled clinical trials (CCT) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from PubMed, Web of Science, NLM, CNKI, and Wanfang (January 2003 to January 2023) were analyzed. Relevant data were extracted and statistically analyzed using RevMan 5.1 software. Twenty high-quality papers (JADAD≥3) involving 1,661 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed a significant difference in the overall response rate between the test and control groups in CP treatment (odds ratio [OR] = 4.08 [95% CI = 3.13, 5.33], p < .001). The National Institutes of Health–Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) posttreatment comparison showed significantly better symptom improvement in the acupuncture and moxibustion group (mean difference [MD] = –4.87 [95% CI = −6.145, −3.59]). Acupuncture and moxibustion significantly improve response rates and symptom scores in CP treatment compared with control treatments (drugs, sham acupuncture). This suggests that acupuncture and moxibustion are effective for CP and worth promoting, though further exploration of their mechanisms is needed.