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Studying Acupuncture and Depression: Cause and Effect

Acupuncture is a method developed over the course of thousands of years in the East as part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Popular culture portrays acupuncture as pain therapy administered by practitioners using thin needles placed in specific points of the body. Essentially, this is a fair portrayal – although pop culture usually paints the patient as quirky, sometimes to the point of not deserving the fruits of the ancient practice. Modern medicine has a more difficult time finding the right place for acupuncture. TCM precedes the scientific method by a substantial number of years and is now difficult to explain the successes of such things as acupuncture and depression.

History and Mystery

The origins of acupuncture are lost in the mists of time. One might presume that successful aspects of acupressure and bloodletting slowly combined into a separate discipline that worked well enough to survive through the centuries fueled in part by the confidence of the patient in the mysterious practitioner. Unlike Western science, the discoveries and studies of TCM practitioners were never written down to be shared by the common person. Theories and practices were instead, passed down from master to apprentice in secret. It is possible that successful techniques were compiled and theories were built around them using the beliefs of the Eastern cultures.

Acupuncture treatment depends on precise placement of needle in acupoints drawn by centuries of practitioners. Roughly put, the points are found along lines of “chi” or energy from major organs along the back and limbs of sufferers. As with Feng Shui, the idea is to allow the chi to flow unimpeded while balancing yin and yang. As for acupuncture and depression, needles are mostly placed along the right side of the body to correct the flow of chi.

A Tucson study divided women with mild depression into three groups. The first was treated with the recommended methods for acupuncture and depression, the second was treated by acupuncture used for other conditions and the third, the control group, was put on a waiting list. Both of the first two groups were told they were receiving the methods of acupuncture and depression. The finding was that the first group had as much improvement as if they received medication. The other two groups fared less well but had a little improvement. This study and other studies for acupuncture and depression was reviewed by the Cochrane Group, a scientific group that is looking for evidence concerning acupuncture, decided that none of the acupuncture and depression studies were sufficiently convincing to advance medical science’s approval of acupuncture and depression. While science continues to study the efficacy of acupuncture and depression, many anecdotal stories tell of happy patients.

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