Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Apr 15, 2024; 15(4): 579-585
Published online Apr 15, 2024. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v15.i4.579
Non-pharmacological interventions for diabetic peripheral neuropathy: Are we winning the battle?
Dania Blaibel, Cornelius James Fernandez, Joseph M Pappachan
Dania Blaibel, Joseph M Pappachan, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Preston PR2 9HT, United Kingdom
Cornelius James Fernandez, Department of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Pilgrim Hospital, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Boston PE21 9QS, United Kingdom
Joseph M Pappachan, Faculty of Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, United Kingdom
Joseph M Pappachan, Faculty of Biology, Medicine & Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Blaibel D substantially contributed to the initial drafting of the work by performing the literature search, interpretation of relevant literature, with some broad guidance from Fernandez CJ and Pappachan JM and made revisions; Fernandez CJ also contributed to figure preparation for the manuscript; Pappachan JM conceptualised the idea, supervised the whole drafting, and revision process of the article critically for important intellectual content; All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Joseph M Pappachan, MD, FRCP, Academic Editor, Consultant Endocrinologist, Professor, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Sharoe Green Lane, Preston PR2 9HT, United Kingdom. drpappachan@yahoo.co.in
Received: November 29, 2023
Peer-review started: November 29, 2023
First decision: January 16, 2024
Revised: January 18, 2024
Accepted: March 4, 2024
Article in press: March 4, 2024
Published online: April 15, 2024
Core Tip

Core Tip: Even with multiple studies examining the pathobiology and management options for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), especially the neuropathic pain, there are still large knowledge gaps in our understanding to effectively address this important clinical problem. Acupuncture is an important nonpharmacological option for several chronic medical conditions including pain syndromes. In their study published in the World Journal of Diabetes, Hoerder et al provide us the reasonable efficacy of acupuncture for the management of DPN, though we need larger multi-center randomized clinical trials for using this therapeutic intervention to enable more evidence-based clinical decision-making.