Acupuncture on Peripheral Neuropathy After Chemotherapy with Taxan – Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Relevance: Obesity is the major multifactorial metabolic burden of the 21st century.Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) add to the multidisciplinary treatment options.Objective: Aim was to investigate the interest in TCM among overweight patients.Methods: From April 2017, 2331 patients from Germany (D: 802), Austria (A: 644) and Switzerland (CH: 884) answered the anonymous BARBQTCM questionnaires in the outpatient wards of the obesity centers.The questionnaire includes 7 question blocks.Age (median 45y), sex (female: 71.9%), Body Mass Index (BMI: median 37 kg/m2; IQR: 30-44) and prior experience with CAM (1251: 53.7%) were assessed.Results: 1967 respondents (84.4%) had professional nutritional counselling, 1833 (78.6%) underwent diverse dietary programs.Nearly half of the Swiss tried out weight loss drugs (D-A-CH: 24.2% vs. 26.1% vs. 49.2%;p < 0.05).1539 patients (66.0%) underwent bariatric surgery: gastric banding (166/1539: 10.8%), sleeve gastrectomy (452/1539: 29.4%), Y-Roux (673/1539: 43.7%) and Omega-Loop (240/1539: 15.6%) gastric bypass.459 respondents (29.8%) reported weight regain (>10 kilograms) after bariatric surgery.1914 respondents (82.1%) were interested in TCM.Top-5 indications for TCM therapy included weight problems (1403/1914: 73.3%) followed by chronic fatigue (1213/1914: 63.4%), joint complaints (1131/1914: 59.1%), sleeping disorders (1072/1914: 56.0%) and loss of satiety (979/1914: 51.1%).Austrians were least interested in eastern therapies: TCM nutritional advices (D-A-CH: 56.5% vs. 43.5% vs. 51.9%;p < 0.05), acupuncture (D-A-CH: 42.4% vs. 33.2% vs. 47.9%;p < 0.05) and herbal therapy (D-A-CH: 32.0% vs. 28.2% vs. 35.4%;n.s.).Conclusions: TCM has developed as important option in the interest of overweight people.Standardized programs have to be offered to face the therapeutic challenge of the multifactorial problem of the metabolic syndrome and obesity, especially in Austria.