Effectiveness of Acupuncture in People Affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): A Quasi-Experimental Study

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that triggers a progressive paralysis of the body with very poor prognosis and short life expectancy (3 to 5 years after diagnosis).This research is based on a quasi-experimental study with Acupuncture in people with ALS to know the effectiveness of Acupuncture in relation to the symptoms associated with the disease.We recruited 13 patients, 6 men and 7 women followed Acupuncture treatment.The acupuncture treatments consisted of 10 personalized sessions per person over 3 months.In each session, the pulse and tongue diagnosis of each participant was evaluated for the selection of the Acupuncture points to treat.To know the effectiveness of Acupuncture, patients self-assessed pain with the EVA scale, fatigue with the Borg scale, anxiety with the Hamilton scale, quality of life with the ALSAQ scale and functional status with the ALSFRS scale before and after of the treatments.At a statistical level, the parametric Student test for paired samples was used.The results showed us that Acupuncture was effective in reducing pain, anxiety and fatigue.No significant changes were observed in the ALSAQ and ALSFRS scales.