Moving cupping therapy for plaque psoriasis: A PRISMA-compliant study of 16 randomized controlled trials

TCM Treatment and Drug Co-Occurrence Analysis of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a long-term immune-mediated disease. Patients with a long history and slow progress are more common, and its treatment is difficult. This study proposes to use traditional Chinese medicine to treat psoriasis. Through the follow-up of all participants for 12 and 24 weeks, a large number of comparative experiments effectively verify the effectiveness of the method proposed in this study. The research results of this study can provide some reference ideas for follow-up research.

Mind-Body Interventions as Alternative and Complementary Therapies for Psoriasis: A Systematic Review of the English Literature

Objective: Conventional therapeutic methods for psoriasis include topical and systemic drugs, phototherapy, and biologic agents. Despite the fact that these treatment methods, and especially biologic agents, are met with a considerable reduction in disease activity, they can sometimes be costly and are nonetheless accompanied by high risks of adverse events, ranging from mild to debilitating. Therefore, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), especially mind-and-body interventions, such as acupuncture, psychotherapy, climatotherapy, and cupping may provide a cheaper and potentially beneficial outcome for these patients. Methods: We performed a systematic review of articles pertaining to acupuncture, cupping, psychotherapy and meditation, as well climatotherapy and balneotherapy in the management of psoriasis, by using the PubMED, Medline and Google Academic research databases and reference cross-checking. Results: 12 articles on acupuncture, 9 on dry or wet cupping, 27 concerning meditation, hypnosis or psychotherapy, and 34 regarding climate therapy or balneotherapy were found. Discussion and Conclusions: Currently, there is a lack of evidence in the English literature to support acupuncture as an effective alternative therapy for psoriasis, whereas cupping has been described in the majority of instances to result in Koebner phenomenon and clinical worsening. Stress management therapies such as psychotherapy, hypnosis, and meditation have shown promising results as complementary treatment methods. Climatotherapy and balneotherapy have already been proven as effective means of achieving clinical improvement in psoriasis. Further research is still needed to verify the usefulness of the lesser studied treatment methods.

Evidence Map of Cupping Therapy

This study aimed to describe and assess the current evidence in systematic reviews on cupping therapy for various conditions. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and six Korean databases for systematic reviews of trials on cupping treatments for any condition published prior to March 2021. We used a bubble plot to graphically display the clinical topics, the number of articles, the number of participants in the total population, confidence, and effectiveness. Thirteen systematic reviews that met the inclusion criteria were included in the evidence map, and 16 bubbles were created. The findings from six reviews showed potential benefits of cupping for conditions such as low back pain, ankylosing spondylitis, knee osteoarthritis, neck pain, herpes zoster, migraine, plaque psoriasis, and chronic urticaria. Cupping has been applied in a variety of clinical areas, and systematic reviews in a few of these areas have demonstrated statistically significant benefits. The evidence map provides a visual overview of cupping research volume and findings. Evidence mapping can facilitate the transfer of knowledge from researchers to policymakers and promote research on musculoskeletal pain (such as low back pain, neck pain, and knee osteoarthritis) and skin disease (plaque psoriasis).