. 2013 Jun;25(3):164–172. doi: 10.1089/acu.2012.0900

Table 1.

Study Characteristics and Quality Score for Acupuncture Trials (QSAT)

General characteristics			Quality measures										Quality scores
Study & ref.	Disorder	Patient population	Inc/exc criteria	Study type	Control treatment	Sample size calculation/goal met	Randomization	Blinding	Acup method	Acup treatment course	Outcome measure	Included lost subjects w/ NNT	QSAT (20)	Jadad (5)
Courbasson et al. 2007²⁸	Anxiety Dep.	Women enrolled in a substance-abuse program	Yes/Yes^*	Parallel RCT^*	Counseling, psychotherapy†#	No††	None††	None††	Standardized†	9 over 3 weeks†	BI^*	No††	9	2
Allen et al. 1998²³	MDD	Women 18–45 yo w/ MDD	Yes/Yes^*	Crossover RC††,#	Nonspecific acup and none^*	Yes/No†	Block^*	Double-blinded^*	Individualized^*	12 over 8 weeks^*	BI, HRS, IDS, SCID^*	No††	15	4
Manber et al. 2004²⁵	MDD	Pregnant women >18 yo w/ MDD	Yes/Yes^*	Parallel RCT^*	Nonspecific acup and massage^*	No††	Block^*	Double-blinded^*	Individualized^*	12 over 8 weeks^*	BI, SCID, HRS^*	Yes, NNT 2.7^*	18	5
Manber et al. 2010²⁶	MDD	Pregnant women >18 yo w/ MDD	Yes/Yes^*	Parallel RCT^*	Nonspecific acup and massage^*	Yes/Yes^*	Block^*	Double-blinded^¶	Individualized^*	12 over 8 weeks^*	HRS, DSM IV^*	Yes, NNT 5.3^*	19	4
Dormaenen et al. 2011²⁴	Dep.	Women in menopause w/ hot flashes	Yes/Yes^*	Parallel RCT^*	Patient education††	No††	Block^*	None††	Individualized^*	10 over 12 weeks^*	BI^*	No††	12	3
Isoyama et al. 2012²⁷	Anxiety	Women < 45 undergoing IVF	Yes/Yes^*	Parallel RCT^*	Sham acup^*	Yes/Yes^*	Block^*	Single-blinded†	Standardized†	4–6 over 4 weeks††	HRS^*	Yes, none†	15	3

Legend: ^*, ideal (2 points); †inferior (1 point); ††, unsatisfactory (0 points), #, lack of adequate description, ^¶lack of adequate implementation.

Outcome measures: BI, Beck Inventory; HRS, Hamilton Rating Scale; IDS, Inventory of Depressive Symptomology; SCID, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM; DSM-IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. rev., Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

Inc, inclusion; exc, exclusion; Acup, acupuncture; w/, with; NNT, number needed to treat ; Dep., depression; MDD, major depressive disorder; yo, years old; IVF, in vitro fertilization; RCT, randomized controlled trial.