SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1617818
Effects of acupuncture on improving sleep quality and the risk of emotional maladjustment of breast cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China
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Background: Acupuncture is highly controversial in enhancing the quality of sleep and the risk of emotional maladjustment in breast cancer patients. Through a comprehensive meta-analytic approach, this study intends to investigate the effects of acupuncture on enhancing sleep quality and the risk of emotional maladjustment in patients diagnosed with breast carcinoma.Methods: Search tactics aligned with Cochrane Collaboration recommendations. Systematic electronic searches were conducted in April 2025 across several data storage, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus. The reference lists of review essay were manually searched to refine potentially eligible studies. A pair of researchers independently performed a comprehensive literature review, conducted data extraction, and assessed the risk of bias. Outcome analysis included the quality of sleep and the risk of emotional maladjustment. For continuous measures, the pooled weighted mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval will be estimated. The meta-analysis was conducted using the Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 16.0 statistical software platforms.Result: A total of 11 studies involving 1116 participants were included. Statistically significant differences were found between acupuncture and control group in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (MD = -1.38, 95%CI = -2.45 to -0.31), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) (MD = -1.11, 95%CI = -3.68 to 1.45), Brief Fatigue Scale (BFI) score (MD = -2.30, 95%CI = -5.62 to -1.03). Acupuncture has been shown to Boost sleep quality and reducing the risk of emotional maladjustment. Specifically, it is manifested in: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-A) (MD = -1.24, 95%CI = -2.41 to -0.35) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) (MD = -1.18, 95%CI = -2.15 to -0.20).Conclusion: In comparison to other standard treatment modalities, acupuncture exhibits a notable distinction in boosting the sleep quality and the risk of emotional maladjustment of breast cancer patients. However, Clinicians should exercise caution when applying these results, as the available evidence suffers from methodological biases and quality limitations.
Keywords: Acupuncture, breast cancer, risk of emotional maladjustment, Meta-analysis, sleep quality
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Wang, Chen and Teng. 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:
Yi Yang, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China
Hong Wang, Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, 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.