Abstract
Introduction: Chronic hypertension is a prevalent cardiovascular disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Alternative therapies such as auricular acupuncture have garnered interest as adjuncts to conventional antihypertensive management, yet robust evidence remains limited.
Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of auricular acupuncture on blood pressure in patients with chronic essential hypertension.
Patients and Methods: This randomized clinical trial, conducted at Imam Reza hospital, enrolled 58 adult hypertensive patients (28 in the control and 30 in the acupunctural group) between August 2022 and December 2024. Informed written consent was obtained, and blood pressure was measured. The intervention consisted of applying micro-needle stickers to four selected auricular acupoints weekly for four weeks, while the control group received visually identical placebo stickers. Participants attended six sessions over eight weeks of follow-up visits. Outcomes focused on the comparison of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) at baseline and multiple time points post-intervention between the two groups.
Results: The between-group analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in SBP, DBP, or MAP at most measurement points throughout the eight-week study period, with only one isolated significant difference observed in SBP at the second week, favoring the auricular acupuncture group. While within-group analyses demonstrated that both the auricular acupuncture and control groups experienced some significant improvements in blood pressure parameters compared to their respective baseline measurements, the differential timing and patterns of these changes suggest that the auricular acupuncture intervention did not provide clinically superior benefits over the control treatment.
Conclusion: Our results showed no clinically significant advantage of auricular acupuncture in lowering blood pressure in patients with chronic essential hypertension. While the present study found no evidence supporting the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture in reducing blood pressure among this population, the inconsistencies with prior findings warrant additional well-designed clinical trials.
Trial Registration: The trial protocol was approved by the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (identifier: IRCT20110809007265N13; https://irct.behdasht.gov.ir/trial/64908), and ethical code from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (IR.MUMS.REC.1401.122; https://ethics. research.ac.ir/EthicsProposalView.php?id=268983).