Is Acupuncture as Effective as an Eye Patch in Treating Lazy Eye (Amblyopia)?

December 15, 2010

Recent research suggests acupuncture may be just as effective as wearing an eye patch to treat amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye.”

In a single-center randomized study of more than 80 kids, daily treatment with acupuncture resolved amblyopia for significantly more children than wearing an eye patch for two hours every day. The study results were reported in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Wearing an eye patch, called occlusion therapy, has been associated with poor compliance so to the extent acupuncture is an effective alternative, that is good news.

Click here to view an abstract of the study.

 

 



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One Response to “Is Acupuncture as Effective as an Eye Patch in Treating Lazy Eye (Amblyopia)?”

  • Dr. Ari Weitzner

    the only weakness in the study was that no sham treatment was given (random needles), to compare real acupuncture to phony acupuncture. in other studies for pain relief, phony acupuncture was found to be equally effective, suggesting the enormous power of placebo effect as the real treatment .