[Scalp penetration acupuncture for insomnia: a randomized controlled trial.]

Background: Insomnia has become a threat to public health, and acupuncture has shown an advantage in treatment of insomnia with good efficacy and few side effects. Objective: To observe the therapeutic effects of scalp penetration acupuncture for insomnia. Design, setting, participants and interventions: A total of 70 insomnia cases meeting inclusion criteria from Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, General Hospital of People\'s Liberation Army were randomly divided into routine acupuncture group and scalp penetration acupuncture group. There were 32 cases in the scalp penetration acupuncture group, and 34 cases in the routine acupuncture group, for four cases lost to follow-up. The insomnia patients were all treated for four weeks. Main outcome measures: The therapeutic effects, cumulative scores of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and contents of sleep architecture were compared before and after treatment in the two groups. Results: The total response rate of 90.6% in the scalp penetration acupuncture group was higher than 73.5% in the routine acupuncture group (P<0.05), and the improvements of PSQI cumulative scores in sleep quality, sleep time and sleep efficiency in the scalp penetration acupuncture group were superior to those in the routine acupuncture group (P<0.05, P<0.01). The total sleep time and deep sleep time of sleep architecture in the scalp penetration acupuncture group significantly increased as compared with those in the routine acupuncture group (P<0.01). Conclusion: The therapeutic effects of scalp penetration acupuncture are better than those of routine acupuncture, especially for improving sleep quality, sleep time and sleep efficiency.