Objective To assess the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS).Methods According to the requirement of evidence-based medicine

CFS

fatigue syndrome

acupuncture and moxibustion

acupuncture

electroacupuncture

auricular acupuncture

auricular pellet pressure

plum-blossom needle

intradermal needle

moxibustion

three edged needle

cupping

cup-moving

acupoint injection

etc.were selected as the subject words for retrieving the related papers form domestic and foreign medical databases.The RCT was used as the enrolled criteria

and the clinical cure rate

markedly effective rate

total effective rate

and the scores of the Fatigue Assessment Instrument Questionnaire(FAI)and fatigue scale(FS)were used as the assessment indexes.The statistical package(RevMan 4.2)was used to review management and analysis of 13 papers.Results A total of 28 papers were enrolled.Logistic regression analysis showed that the total odds ratio(OR)was 4.56

with 95% confidence interval(CI)[2.84

7.33] for the total effective rate in 10 studies

the total OR was 2.07 with 95% CI [1.49

2.88] for the markedly effective rate in 8 studies

and the total OR was 2.51 with 95% CI [1.64

3.85] for the clinical cure rate in 8 studies.The weighted mean difference(WMD)was-29.52 with 95% CI [-36.17

-22.88] for the FAI score in 3 studies

and the WMD-1.22 with 95% CI [-1.77

-0.67] for the FS score in 4 studies.The therapeutic effect in the treatment group of CFS was superior to that in the control group(P<0.01).Conclusion Acupuncture therapy is effective for CFS

but still needs being confirmed by more high-quality studies.