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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2026; 16(1): 110146
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.110146
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.110146
Electroacupuncture improves psychosocial outcomes in rectal cancer patients with bowel dysfunction
Na Wang, San-Shan Li, Department of Proctology, Peking University Lu’an Hospital, Changzhi 046200, Shanxi Province, China
Yi Yang, Xiao-Feng Wang, Department of Proctology, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China
Co-first authors: Na Wang and Yi Yang.
Author contributions: Wang N and Yang Y drafted the manuscript; Wang N, Yang Y, and Wang XF conceived and designed the research study; Wang N and Li SS collected and analyzed the clinical data; Yang Y performed the statistical analysis; Wang XF supervised the study and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. Wang N and Yang Y contributed equally to this manuscript and are co-first authors. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Peking University Lu’an Hospital (Approval No. 2021009) and Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (Approval No. 2022-037-KY-01).
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to inclusion in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to patient privacy and institutional regulations but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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: Xiao-Feng Wang, Department of Proctology, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, No. 5 Beixiangge, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China. 17603559298@163.com
Received: June 17, 2025
Revised: August 17, 2025
Accepted: October 24, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 196 Days and 19.4 Hours
Revised: August 17, 2025
Accepted: October 24, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 196 Days and 19.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Low anterior resection syndrome impairs both bowel function and emotional health after rectal cancer surgery. This controlled study shows that electroacupuncture significantly improves anxiety, depression, body image, and bowel symptoms. Emotional remission occurred faster in the electroacupuncture group, especially among patients with high psychological burden. The findings support electroacupuncture as a safe, multidimensional approach for low anterior resection syndrome rehabilitation and highlight the value of targeted psychosocial interventions in colorectal cancer survivorship care.