NCT05078944Completed
Progress of Mild Alzheimer's Disease in Participants on Acupuncture Versus Sham Acupuncture
Randomized, Blinded, Sham-Controlled Trial of Acupuncture on the Progression of Mild Alzheimer's Disease
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 22 May 2026
Brief summary (registry, in English)
To determine if adjunctive acupuncture acts as an AD treatment rather than a placebo.
- Status (registry)
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Enrollment
- 160 (actual)
- First submitted
- 23 Sept 2021
- Start date
- Jun 2022
- Primary completion date
- Sept 2025
- Lead sponsor
- Shanghai Institute of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Meridian
- Diseases
- Alzheimer disease
- NCT number
- NCT05078944
What you commit to
- Study type: Interventional
- Participants enrolled: 160
- From Jun 2022 to the primary completion date, Sept 2025
- 1 site in 1 country
- Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them
Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.
Who cannot take part
Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.
Prior treatment
- Use of AD therapy (except for donepezil hydrochloride) which cannot be stopped
- Use of antibiotics within 1 month prior to enrollment
- Without a reliable caregiver who will accompany the participant during treatment and assessment, and monitor administration of the prescribed medications
Other illness
- Dementia due to other causes
- Evidence of a clinically relevant or unstable psychiatric disorder
- Has irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease
- Has unstable or severe cardiovascular, hepatic, renal, respiratory, endocrinologic, neurologic diseases and other conditions that, in the investigator's opinion, could interfere with the analyses of safety and efficacy in this study
- Has visual or hearing disorder, defeating completion of evaluation
- Has a history of gastrointestinal surgery (except for appendicitis and hernia surgery)
- With cardiac pacemaker or metal allergy
Other
- Once experienced electroacupuncture treatment before at any time (manual acupuncture is allowed)
- Premenopausal woman
Who the study is looking for
- Meets the diagnostic criteria for probable AD according to the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS/ADRDA)
- Scored 1.0 by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) Global Score
Age in the registry: 50 years to 80 years · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers
Sites (1)
Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.
| Site | City | Country | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai Institute of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Meridian Organization Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Shanghai | China | Unknown status |
Related publications
- Acupuncture as an adjunct therapy for mild Alzheimer's disease: A randomized clinical trial.J Alzheimers Dis · 2026 · PMID 41910461
This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.