A Meta-Analysis of Alternative and Complementary Medicine for the Treatment of Insomnia

Class of 2013 AbstractSpecific Aims: To evaluate three complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), tai-chi, acupuncture, and melatonin, for treating insomnia using meta-analysis assessment of randomized controlled trials. Methods: The electronic database MEDLINE (PubMed) was searched from May of 2012 to November of 2012 by using the terms “sleep initiation and maintenance disorders” AND “tai-chi” OR “melatonin” OR “acupuncture”. All of the searches ended at November of 2012. Data extraction was conducted independently by 2 investigators and any disagreements were resolved by consensus. If the 2 investigators could not agree, the study was reviewed by all 4 investigators. Main Results: Out of 500 studies that were initially retrieved, 12 studies were included; 3 for tai-chi; 4 for acupuncture; 5 for melatonin. We found that the effect of each type of intervention was significantly different than zero, p<0.01 thus all were effective in treating insomnia. From our analysis, acupuncture was the most effective (standard mean difference, SMD=-0.66; p<0.01) followed by tai-chi (SMD=-0.43; p