Acupuncture treat depression
Acupuncture for Depression: Does It Work?
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on March 25, 2021
In this Article
- What is Acupuncture?
- What is Depression?
- Acupuncture and Depression
- Side Effects of Acupuncture
- What to Look for in a Practitioner
For about 3,000 years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used acupuncture to treat various medical conditions. In recent decades, acupuncture has become more popular in the United States, with more than 10 million acupuncture treatments given each year.
Some people are even turning to acupuncture to treat their mental health issues, including depression. For those who have not improved with regular treatment methods, acupuncture may be a useful alternative treatment. Here is what you need to know about using acupuncture for depression.
What is Acupuncture?
In acupuncture, thin steel needles, which are the width of a human hair, are inserted into specific parts of your body. Where the needles are inserted depends on the health issue being treated. Some health issues treated using acupuncture include:
- Arthritis
- Menstrual cramps
- Chronic pain
- Acute pain such as muscle pain, back pain, knee pain
- Migraines and headaches
- Sports injuries
- Allergies.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that the body has a flow of energy or qi that regulates your health. If the flow is disrupted, you’ll feel ill. Applying needles to specific acupuncture points, called meridians, rebalances your energy flow and improves your health.
What is Depression?
Depression, or major depressive disorder, is an illness that involves a constant feeling of sadness and a loss of interest or pleasure. There may also be several other symptoms:
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
- Tiredness and lack of energy
- Thoughts of death or suicide
- Changes to appetite and weight
- Irritability and frustration, even over small matters
- Trouble concentrating, making decisions, remembering things
- Feelings of guilt or worthlessness.
Depression is often treated with medication, talk therapy, or both. However, between 19% to 34% of those with depression don’t improve with medication or therapy. Many people (15% to 50%) will also have depression again despite ongoing treatment.
Some people with depression are now giving alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, a try. In the United Kingdom, psychological distress, which includes depression, was the second most common reason why people tried acupuncture.
Acupuncture and Depression
There have been few research studies about acupuncture for depression, so it’s difficult to accurately measure its treatment benefits. Something that limits research into acupuncture as a treatment method is that it is hard to create a control condition. Practitioners and patients know if they are doing or having the treatment.
Despite these limitations, there is some research supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for depression and related symptoms.
Decrease in severity of depression. In an 8-week acupuncture study of 151 men and women, researchers found that depressive symptoms improved significantly. Those who received acupuncture, whether targeted or nonspecific, improved more than those who did not.
In another study, acupuncture was found to have similar effects compared to the antidepressant drug fluoxetine in those with post-stroke depression.
Reduction in the number of migraines. Some people have both depression and migraines. Researchers found that those who have migraines or other severe headaches are three times more likely to have depression, compared to those who don’t have headaches.
A 24-week study found that people who received acupuncture treatments had less frequent migraines than those who did not.
Reduction in depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Up to 14% of pregnant women may have depression. For some women, pregnancy is the cause of their depression.
Depression during pregnancy can have risks for both mother and baby.
Some pregnant women may be worried about taking antidepressants and seek alternative treatments for their depression. Acupuncture may have an effect on depression during pregnancy.
In a study, pregnant women with depression received depression-targeted acupuncture for 8 weeks. Another group of pregnant women received non-specific acupuncture, and a third group received prenatal massages. The women who received depression-specific acupuncture had a greater reduction in depressive symptoms compared to those who received the other treatments.
Side Effects of Acupuncture
Some common side effects of acupuncture include bruising, minor bleeding, or soreness in the places where needles were inserted. Rare side effects include dizziness, local internal bleeding, nerve damage, dermatitis, increased pain, and hepatitis B.
You may be at a higher risk for complications if you have certain medical issues.
If you have a bleeding disorder or are taking blood thinners, the likelihood of bleeding or bruising increases.
If you have a pacemaker, infusion pump, or another electrical device, you might want to avoid electroacupuncture, which uses a device to generate electric stimulation. Electroacupuncture can interfere with your device.
Some types of acupuncture are believed to induce labor. If you are pregnant, be careful about the types of acupuncture you receive.
Be sure to discuss any alternative treatments you are trying with your doctor.
What to Look for in a Practitioner
The risks of acupuncture are generally low, but it is important to go to a certified practitioner. Certified acupuncturists will be trained in the proper techniques and reduce your risk of injury.
Your practitioner should use a new package of sterile needles at your appointment. They should also swab all puncture sites with alcohol before inserting any needles.
Most acupuncturists use disposable, single-use needles, so the risk of infection is very low.
The US Food and Drug Administration requires that acupuncture needles be stainless steel, solid, sterile, and nontoxic.
If you don’t know where to start looking for an acupuncturist, you can ask your doctor for recommendations. You can also check with the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine for practitioners in your area.
Be sure to check if acupuncture is covered by your insurance or that you can cover the costs before you begin any acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncture for Depression: Does It Work?
Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors
Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on March 25, 2021
In this Article
- What is Acupuncture?
- What is Depression?
- Acupuncture and Depression
- Side Effects of Acupuncture
- What to Look for in a Practitioner
For about 3,000 years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used acupuncture to treat various medical conditions.
In recent decades, acupuncture has become more popular in the United States, with more than 10 million acupuncture treatments given each year.
Some people are even turning to acupuncture to treat their mental health issues, including depression. For those who have not improved with regular treatment methods, acupuncture may be a useful alternative treatment. Here is what you need to know about using acupuncture for depression.
What is Acupuncture?
In acupuncture, thin steel needles, which are the width of a human hair, are inserted into specific parts of your body. Where the needles are inserted depends on the health issue being treated. Some health issues treated using acupuncture include:
- Arthritis
- Menstrual cramps
- Chronic pain
- Acute pain such as muscle pain, back pain, knee pain
- Migraines and headaches
- Sports injuries
- Allergies.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that the body has a flow of energy or qi that regulates your health.
If the flow is disrupted, you’ll feel ill. Applying needles to specific acupuncture points, called meridians, rebalances your energy flow and improves your health.
What is Depression?
Depression, or major depressive disorder, is an illness that involves a constant feeling of sadness and a loss of interest or pleasure. There may also be several other symptoms:
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
- Tiredness and lack of energy
- Thoughts of death or suicide
- Changes to appetite and weight
- Irritability and frustration, even over small matters
- Trouble concentrating, making decisions, remembering things
- Feelings of guilt or worthlessness.
Depression is often treated with medication, talk therapy, or both. However, between 19% to 34% of those with depression don’t improve with medication or therapy. Many people (15% to 50%) will also have depression again despite ongoing treatment.
Some people with depression are now giving alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, a try.
In the United Kingdom, psychological distress, which includes depression, was the second most common reason why people tried acupuncture.
Acupuncture and Depression
There have been few research studies about acupuncture for depression, so it’s difficult to accurately measure its treatment benefits. Something that limits research into acupuncture as a treatment method is that it is hard to create a control condition. Practitioners and patients know if they are doing or having the treatment.
Despite these limitations, there is some research supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for depression and related symptoms.
Decrease in severity of depression. In an 8-week acupuncture study of 151 men and women, researchers found that depressive symptoms improved significantly. Those who received acupuncture, whether targeted or nonspecific, improved more than those who did not.
In another study, acupuncture was found to have similar effects compared to the antidepressant drug fluoxetine in those with post-stroke depression.
Reduction in the number of migraines. Some people have both depression and migraines. Researchers found that those who have migraines or other severe headaches are three times more likely to have depression, compared to those who don’t have headaches.
A 24-week study found that people who received acupuncture treatments had less frequent migraines than those who did not.
Reduction in depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Up to 14% of pregnant women may have depression. For some women, pregnancy is the cause of their depression. Depression during pregnancy can have risks for both mother and baby.
Some pregnant women may be worried about taking antidepressants and seek alternative treatments for their depression. Acupuncture may have an effect on depression during pregnancy.
In a study, pregnant women with depression received depression-targeted acupuncture for 8 weeks. Another group of pregnant women received non-specific acupuncture, and a third group received prenatal massages.
The women who received depression-specific acupuncture had a greater reduction in depressive symptoms compared to those who received the other treatments.
Side Effects of Acupuncture
Some common side effects of acupuncture include bruising, minor bleeding, or soreness in the places where needles were inserted. Rare side effects include dizziness, local internal bleeding, nerve damage, dermatitis, increased pain, and hepatitis B.
You may be at a higher risk for complications if you have certain medical issues. If you have a bleeding disorder or are taking blood thinners, the likelihood of bleeding or bruising increases.
If you have a pacemaker, infusion pump, or another electrical device, you might want to avoid electroacupuncture, which uses a device to generate electric stimulation. Electroacupuncture can interfere with your device.
Some types of acupuncture are believed to induce labor. If you are pregnant, be careful about the types of acupuncture you receive.
Be sure to discuss any alternative treatments you are trying with your doctor.
What to Look for in a Practitioner
The risks of acupuncture are generally low, but it is important to go to a certified practitioner. Certified acupuncturists will be trained in the proper techniques and reduce your risk of injury.
Your practitioner should use a new package of sterile needles at your appointment. They should also swab all puncture sites with alcohol before inserting any needles.
Most acupuncturists use disposable, single-use needles, so the risk of infection is very low. The US Food and Drug Administration requires that acupuncture needles be stainless steel, solid, sterile, and nontoxic.
If you don’t know where to start looking for an acupuncturist, you can ask your doctor for recommendations. You can also check with the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine for practitioners in your area.
Be sure to check if acupuncture is covered by your insurance or that you can cover the costs before you begin any acupuncture treatments.
Acupuncture for the treatment of neurosis and depression
With neurotic disorders, Western medicine operates with pills - tranquilizers, antidepressants. But these are symptomatic remedies, but the problem can be eliminated in essence.
Tibetan doctors consider neuroses, depression, and other disorders of the nervous system and psyche to be the result of an imbalance in the regulating basis Wind (Rlung). And if the cause is known, then there are ways to eliminate it.
The usual cause of nervous disorders is the energy depletion of the body. This is due, firstly, to the innate characteristics of metabolism.
Most often, people of the constitutional type Wind suffer from neuroses and depression - impressionable, emotional, restless, mobile. They are not at all prone to excess weight, they are lean, tall or, on the contrary, miniature.
The metabolism of such people is very fast, so the energy does not have time to spend rationally and most of it is wasted - on emotional outbursts, violent and fruitless impulses, insomnia, constant anxiety.
The result is an exhaustion of the nervous system, or the basis of Wind. This base is of a cold nature, so its depletion is often accompanied by coldness of the hands, feet, and a sensation of chilliness.
No pills can restore the energy balance. Only proper nutrition, herbal medicine can increase the level of heat. For these methods to work optimally, it is necessary that the energy move freely in the body along the meridians.
But with neurosis of anxiety, fear or other disorders of the nervous system in the body, as a rule, there are muscle spasms, blood circulation is disturbed. If the normal circulation of energy is not restored, it is almost impossible to increase the level of body heat.
And then acupuncture comes to the rescue. With the help of acupuncture, the Tibet clinic doctor restores the normal movement of energy along the meridians of the body and puts the energy balance of the body in order.
Thus, acupuncture eliminates the cause of nervous disorders - energy depletion.
No pills can help with this, but acupuncture sessions help.
The success of acupuncture in the treatment of neuroses, depression and other nervous diseases is so obvious that modern medicine tries to explain them scientifically. Her explanation consists of three points.
1. Acupuncture somehow stimulates the production of dopamine and serotonin.
Indeed, the introduction of needles into bioactive points according to certain patterns stimulates the production of the "hormone of pleasure" - dopamine and the "hormone of happiness" - serotonin.
Serotonin is a hormone that is produced when exposed to sunlight. The lack of sun in the northern climate is one of the main causes of depression and suicidality.
An example is Finland. This country has one of the highest living standards, but also one of the highest suicide rates. The reason is the shortage of the sun, a small number of sunny days, that is, a purely climatic, and not an economic factor.
Russia is also among the country-record holders in the number of suicides, and the climate factor plays a significant role in this.
Acupuncture increases the production of serotonin and thus serves as a cure for depression. As for dopamine, it is not only a “hormone of pleasure”, but also a neurotransmitter.
The conductivity of the "white channels" - the nerves - depends on its concentration. The easier and faster the signals pass through the nerves, the lower the energy costs. Therefore, by facilitating the innervation of the body, acupuncture improves its energy.
2. Acupuncture somehow stimulates the production of endorphins.
Pain-relieving substances that are produced by our brain are similar in their action to morphine. They not only anesthetize, but also improve mood and therefore help with neurosis and depression no worse, but better than antidepressants.
3. Acupuncture relieves muscle spasms and pain.
The introduction of needles into bioactive points relieves muscle tension. Thanks to this, canned nervous stresses are released, mental, nervous tension is relieved.
Acupressure massage also gives a similar effect in the Tibet clinic, during sessions of which patients sometimes begin to cry because the drunken mental load is released and comes out. These are tears and the joy of relief.
Acupuncture in this sense gives less effect than acupressure, but it has an analgesic effect in pain syndromes, which serve as a factor in the development of neurosis, depression, and insomnia.
In general, according to the experience of the doctors of the Tibet clinic, acupuncture is a powerful tool for treating neurosis, depression and other nervous disorders.
In terms of its effectiveness, this method is significantly superior to medications, especially in the long term. After all, acupuncture eliminates not only the symptoms and mechanisms of development of nervous disorders.
With its help, it is possible to eliminate the causes of imbalance in the Wind base, which is responsible for the psyche, brain function and nervous system.
With the help of acupuncture, the doctor of the Tibet clinic regulates the energy balance of the body, eliminating the cause of the depletion of the nervous system. At the same time, it acts simultaneously on the signs and causes of a neurotic disorder.
Acupuncture improves treatment of depression and chronic pain
Acupuncture improves treatment of depression and chronic pain symptom intensity.
In a report published in the Journal of the National Institutes of Health Research (NIHR), researchers showed that there is strong evidence that acupuncture is significantly superior to the placebo effect.
Professor Hugh McPherson conducted a study with a team of scientists from the UK and the US, collecting the results of 29 high quality clinical studies focused on patients treated with acupuncture and conventional methods.
In most of these studies, patients with chronic pain who were treated with acupuncture and standard medical care were compared with those who received only standard treatment in the form of NSAID medication and physical therapy. The study involved about 18,000 patients diagnosed with chronic pain localized in the neck, lower back, headache or knee pain.
The study showed that the addition of acupuncture treatment, compared with standard treatments, significantly reduced the number of episodes of headaches, and also reduced the intensity of pain in the neck and lower back. The study also showed that acupuncture reduced pain and joint function in osteoarthritis, leading to patients requiring fewer NSAIDs for pain relief.
The study also concluded that acupuncture is cost effective as it does not require expensive consumables.
Professor McPherson, from the University of York, said: "Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of physicians who use acupuncture in their practice.
Nearly 4 million acupuncture treatments are performed in the UK per year, but there has been no reliable evidence of the effectiveness of this technique.
" Therefore, for many years the use of acupuncture has been a controversial issue. Our goal was to bring together data from high-quality clinical studies and provide a robust evidence base that will help reduce this uncertainty and enable physicians to use this non-pharmacological treatment in an informed manner.”
In addition, a new clinical study of the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of depression was conducted by a team of scientists compared with the effectiveness of treatment using drugs such as antidepressants.
The study included 755 depressed patients in the North of England. Researchers have shown that both acupuncture and psychotherapy significantly reduce the severity of depression and the effect of treatment lasts for 12 months.
Professor McPherson said: "The first step in the treatment of depression is usually the use of antidepressants, but these drugs do not work in half of the patients.
