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Acupuncture has been used to manage chronic constipation, but evidence of its effectiveness is limited. In this multicenter trial from China, researchers randomized 1075 patients (age range, 17–85; 76% women) with chronic severe functional constipation (i.e., fewer than 3 complete spontaneous bowel movements [BMs] weekly) to receive electroacupuncture (EA) or sham EA; patients underwent 28 sessions during 8 weeks and were followed for 12 additional weeks after treatments ended.
At baseline, the mean number of BMs weekly was approximately 0.4 in both groups. At 8 weeks, increases from baseline in mean weekly BMs were 1.76 in the EA group and 0.87 in the sham EA group — a significant difference. Differences between groups remained significant …