1. Search history.

Date	References
All years	From a large number of papers on acupuncture and asthma screened we identified 21 controlled clinical trials. At least two of the three original reviewers independently assessed eligibility and selected seven studies for inclusion in the review. The main reasons for exclusion were short observation periods (i.e. studies on induced/spontaneous asthma attacks) and non‐random allocation (see reasons for exclusions in the table of excluded studies). Trials with short observation periods do not seem relevant for the primary objective of this review as acupuncture is primarily used as an adjuvant therapy in the long‐term treatment of asthma. These trials have been summarized in the reviews by Jobst (Jobst 1995) and Linde et al. (Linde 1996).
August 2003	We identified sixty‐four references from electronic searches and alerts, of which ten studies were retrieved. Five met the inclusion criteria (Biernacki 1998; Joos 2000; Malmström 2002; Medici 2002; Shapira 2002) and four were excluded from the review (Choudhury 1989; Maa 1997; Eber 2001; Gruber 2002; Karst 2002 ‐ please see "Table of characteristics of excluded studies"). One study is awaiting assessment due to inadequate reporting (Abdel Khalek 1999). One study was excluded that had previously been included (Jobst 1986) as the study recruited people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
August 2004‐5	23 references identified, 2 retrieved. Both were excluded (Ailioaie 1999 and Ailioaie 2000)
August 05‐06	0 references identified
August 2006‐2007	3 references identified 3 references retrieved Excluded: 3 (methods not sufficient to determine quality (N = 1); addition of therapy to acupuncture not given to control group (N = 1); no sham intervention in control group (N = 1)