BACKGROUND: Overactive bladder is prevalent in adults over 40 years of age and its prevalence increases with age. The use of acupuncture in adults with overactive bladder is increasing globally. However, its effectiveness/efficacy and safety have not yet been confirmed. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness/efficacy and safety of acupuncture and to identify the pattern of commonly used traditional acupuncture points in the management of overactive bladder in adults. METHODS: Ten electronic English and Chinese language databases were systematically searched and two English together with four Chinese journals relevant to acupuncture were manually searched in libraries for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for overactive bladder in adults from their inception to March 2017. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the RCTs. RevMan v.5.3 software was employed for data analysis. RESULTS: Seven eligible trials involving 695 participants were included. Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture was comparable to drugs (tolterodine tartrate/solifenacin) in the reduction of micturition episodes over 24 hours (pooled standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.36, 95% CI -0.23 to 0.95; I2 = 83%), increase in voided volume of each micturition episode (pooled SMD -0.15, 95% CI -0.36 to 0.05; I2 = 0%), and reduction of overactive bladder symptom score (pooled SMD -0.23, 95% CI -1.30 to 0.85; I2 = 91%). In addition, acupuncture was not significantly different compared with placebo in the reduction of overactive bladder symptom score (pooled SMD -2.36, 95% CI -5.64 to 0.93; I2 = 97%). No serious adverse events were reported. CONCLUSIONS: No significant differences in effectiveness or efficacy were found between acupuncture and drug or between verum and sham acupuncture, respectively. Further high-quality studies are required.

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