Laser acupuncture for adolescent smokers--a randomized double-blind controlled trial

Abstract

A double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of laser acupuncture treatment in adolescent smokers. Three hundred and thirty adolescent smokers at the Smoking Cessation Clinic of Child Guidance Clinic, Institute of Health, Singapore, were randomly assigned in equal numbers to laser acupuncture treatment and sham acupuncture (control) groups. The proportions of patients with complete smoking cessation after completing treatment for four weeks were 21.9% in the treatment group and 21.4% in the control group. At three months post-treatment, the rates for complete cessation were 24.8% and 26.2%, respectively. Thus, there was no significant difference in the rates of smoking cessation in the treatment and control groups.