acupuncture to treat sleep disorders in postmenopausal women: a systematic review

Sleep disorders are commonly observed among postmenopausal women, with negative effects on their quality of life. The search for complementary therapies for sleep disorders during postmenopausal period is of high importance, and acupuncture stands out as an appropriate possibility. The present review intended to systematically evaluate the available literature, compiling studies that have employed acupuncture as treatment to sleep disorders in postmenopausal women. A bibliographic search was performed in PubMed/Medline and Scopus. Articles which had acupuncture as intervention, sleep related measurements as outcomes, and postmenopausal women as target population were included and evaluated according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool and to the STRICTA guidelines. Out of 89 search results, 12 articles composed our final sample. A high heterogeneity was observed among these articles, which prevented us from performing a meta-analysis. Selected articles did not present high risk of bias and had a satisfactory compliance rate with STRICTA guidelines. In general, these studies presented improvements in sleep-related variables. Despite the overall positive effects, acupuncture still cannot be stated as a reliable treatment for sleep-related complaints, not due to inefficacy, but rather limited evidence. Nevertheless, results are promising and new comprehensive and controlled studies in the field are encouraged.