Acupuncture for post-stroke insomnia: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Post-stroke insomnia (PSI) is a significant complication of stroke, which often affects patients in various aspects. Acupuncture has fewer side effect and is increasingly used to treat PSI. The purpose of this study is to summarize the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PSI. Methods: We will perform a comprehensive electronic searching, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, WangFang Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, from inception to July 2020. We will also manually retrieve references, and contact lead authors. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for PSI will be included, regardless of whether blind method and allocation concealment are used. The outcomes of interest include: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), efficacy standards of Chinese medicine, relapse rate after follow-up, adverse events, quality of life. To assess the risk of bias, we will use the Cochrane risk assessment tool. RevMan 5.3 software will be used to conduct data synthesis. The evidence quality of each outcome will be appraised according to Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Results: The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: This study will provide a high-quality evidence to evaluate the efficacy and adverse reactions of acupuncture for PSI. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020157865.