Efficacy of acupuncture in patients suffering from somatoform disorders—a literature review

Somatoform disorders are difficult to diagnose and, more often than not, complicated to manage. Acupuncture has been proposed as a possible treatment method to treat this form of psychosomatic disorder. The aim of this article is to analyze current studies on this topic to evaluate whether acupuncture can be used effectively to treat patients suffering from somatoform disorders. A literature search was performed in the databases PubMed, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate. Five studies were included in the analysis. The Cochrane risk-of-bias (RoB-2) and Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal (JBI) tools were used to assess the risk of bias of the included articles. The five studies qualifying for inclusion concluded that acupuncture is effective in treating somatoform disorders. The studies used waitlist, sham acupuncture, psychotherapy, or no control groups to compare the efficacy of acupuncture to other treatment methods. Acupuncture was found to be more effective in treating somatoform disorders than the respective control groups. While the positive results of the studies included in this review offer a promising perspective on future treatment options, the small amount of research on this topic and the overall quality of existing studies leaves important questions unanswered. Thus, more research is necessary to conclude that acupuncture can be an effective method to treat somatoform disorders.