Deng 2001a.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial, parallel groups
Participants	Setting: hospital patients Treatment group (males): 64 (30) Control group (males): 65 (28) Age: Treatment group: mean 21.75 (SD 12.03) years; Control group: mean 22.43 (SD 13.25) years Inclusion: generalized tonic‐clonic epilepsy Exclusion: none Seizure type: generalized tonic‐clonic epilepsy Duration of epilepsy: Treatment group: mean 7.36 ± 7.03 years; Control group: mean 7.85 ± 8.02 years Aetiology of epilepsy: not available Baseline seizure frequency: not available Number of AEDs taken: not available
Interventions	Treatment group: catgut implantation at 3 to 4 of 7 acupoints, every 25 to 30 days, for 4 to 5 times, plus carbamazepine or valproate at half doses + aminobutyric acid 500 mg 2 to 3 times/day + vitamin B6 20 to 30 mg 2 to 3 times/day + cinnarizine 25 to 50 mg 2 to 3 times/day Control group: carbamazepine 100 to 200 mg 2 to 3 times/day or valproate 200 mg 2 to 3 times/day +aminobutyric acid 500 mg 2 to 3 times/day + Vitamin B6 20 to 30 mg 2 to 3 times/day + cinnarizine 25‐50 mg 2 to 3 times/day Duration of treatment: 1 year
Outcomes	Seizure freedom: Treatment group 75% or greater reduction in seizure frequency 50% or greater reduction in seizure frequency 25% or greater reduction in seizure frequency Post‐treatment EEG abnormality: severe, moderate, mild
Notes	Duration of follow‐up: 1 year
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomisation was done by computer‐generated random number
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Allocation concealment was not described
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	The participants and personnel and outcome assessors were not blinded
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	The participants and personnel and outcome assessors were not blinded
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	The outcome assessors were not blinded
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	There were no dropouts
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes were reported
Other bias	High risk	Comparability of the groups at baseline was uncertain since there were no data on aetiology of epilepsy, current AED treatments, and frequency of seizures at baseline. There was no sham or placebo control and hence there might be placebo effect which causes bias. Treatment was variable within the treatment group and might introduce bias