Acupuncture effective and safe for dizziness and vertigo in emergency department

In a pilot cohort study evaluating the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating patients with dizziness and vertigo in emergency department, 60 patients were assigned to acupuncture or control group. The effect was evaluated with questionnaires of Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of dizziness and vertigo, and heart rate variability (HRV).

The variation of VAS demonstrated a significant decrease (p=0.001 and p=0.037) between two groups after two different durations: 30 mins and 7 days. HRV revealed a significant increase in high frequency (HF) in the acupuncture group. No adverse event was reported in this study.

Acupuncture demonstrates a significant immediate effect in reducing discomforts and VAS of both dizziness and vertigo. This study provides clinical evidence on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture to treat dizziness and vertigo in the emergency department.

Source: Chiu et al.
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for dizziness and vertigo in emergency department: a pilot cohort study. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2015;15:173.