Acupuncture in the treatment of fatigue in Parkinson's disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Fatigue is a commonly occurring nonmotor symptom among individuals of Parkinson's disease (PD). Little is known about how to measure fatigue in PD. This study is aiming to investigate the safety and efficacy of acupuncture for PD-related fatigue. METHODS: RCTs of acupuncture for PD-related fatigue will be retrieved from inception to July 2020 in 9 different databases such as Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE and so on. Search words will be used for the BC and acupuncture. The analysis would include randomised, controlled, clinical trials of PD patients with fatigue that were published in either Chinese or English. The primary outcome is the fatigue condition. Two or three reviewers should be in charge of study selection, data extraction and evaluating the risk of bias. RevMan software (V.5.3) will be used to perform the assessment of the risk of bias and data synthesis. RESULTS: To provide evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treating PD-related fatigue. CONCLUSION: This study will be helpful for understanding the effect and safety of acupuncture for PD-related fatigue. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020160823