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Acupuncture & Emotions, Psychological & Mental Disorders

Acupuncture for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Conceptual, Clinical, and Biological Data Support Further Research

CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics

Volume 17, Issue 6, pages 769–779, December 2011

Acupuncture for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Conceptual, Clinical, and Biological Data Support Further Research

  1. Michael Hollifield

Article first published online: 26 FEB 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2011.00241.x

SUMMARY

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common, debilitating, and has highly heterogeneous clinical and biological features. With the exception of one published preliminary clinical trial, rationale in support of the efficacy of acupuncture, a modality of Chinese medicine (CM), for PTSD has not been well described.

This is a focused review of conceptual and clinical features of PTSD shared by modern western medicine (MWM) and CM, and of biological mechanisms of acupuncture that parallel known PTSD pathology. MWM and CM both recognize individual developmental variables and interactions between external conditions and internal responses in the genesis of PTSD.

There is one published and one unpublished clinical trial that preliminarily support the efficacy of acupuncture for PTSD. Although there have been no mechanistic studies of acupuncture in human PTSD, extant research shows that acupuncture has biological effects that are relevant to PTSD pathology. Conceptual, clinical, and biological data support possible efficacy of acupuncture for PTSD. However, further definitive research about simultaneous clinical and biological effects is needed to support the use of acupuncture for PTSD in health care systems.

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Electro-Acupuncture & Depression

J Altern Complement Med. 2013 Sep;19(9):733-9. doi: 10.1089/acm.2011.0637. Epub 2013 May 6.

Effects of electroacupuncture on depression and the production of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor compared with fluoxetine: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Sun H1, Zhao H, Ma C, Bao F, Zhang J, Wang DH, Zhang YX, He W.

Author information

  • 11 Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital , Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China .

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:

Postmortem studies indicate that the number and density of glial cells are reduced in different brain regions of patients with depression. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of depressive disorder (DD) and might be a biomarker for damage to nerve cells. In this study, we compared the therapeutic effects of electroacupuncture (EA) and fluoxetine, a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, on DD patients, focusing on the serum level of GDNF.

DESIGN:

This was a prospective, randomized clinical trial.

SETTING:

Seventy-five patients with DD from the Department of Acupuncture, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, were recruited.

INTERVENTION:

Twenty patients were treated with acupuncture for 6 weeks on the acupoints of Baihui (DU20) and Zusanli (ST36). Sixteen patients were treated with acupuncture for 6 weeks on the acupoints of Taichong (LR3), Sanyinjiao (SP6), Neiguan (PC6), and Shenmen (HT7), and constituted the electroacupuncture control group. The patients received acupuncture treatment five times per week. Twenty-five patients were treated with oral fluoxetine (20 mg/day) for 6 weeks.

OUTCOME MEASURES:

All subjects were evaluated by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at four time points (0 [baseline], 2, 4, and 6 weeks after treatment). Serum GDNF was quantified in duplicate by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTS:

EA and fluoxetine had similar curative effects on DD patients. EA had a faster onset of action, better response rate, and better improvement rate than fluoxetine. Both fluoxetine and EA treatment restored the normal concentration of GDNF in the serum of DD patients.

CONCLUSION:

EA treatment for depression is as effective as a recommended dose of fluoxetine. However, EA demonstrates an advantage in the regulation of the production of GDNF compared with fluoxetine.

PMID: 23647408  [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]   PMCID:  PMC3768227 

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Electro-Acup & Depression

Brief Group Intervention Using Emotional Freedom Techniques for Depression in College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial 

Depression Research and Treatment
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 257172, 7 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/257172
Clinical Study

Brief Group Intervention Using Emotional Freedom Techniques for Depression in College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Dawson Church,1 Midanelle A. De Asis,2 and Audrey J. Brooks3

1Foundation for Epigenetic Medicine, 3340 Fulton Road, No. 442, Fulton, CA 95439, USA
2College of Science, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines
3Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

Received 27 February 2012; Revised 20 May 2012; Accepted 21 May 2012

Academic Editor: H. Grunze

Copyright © 2012 Dawson Church et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

Abstract

Two hundred thirty-eight first-year college students were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Thirty students meeting the BDI criteria for moderate to severe depression were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. The treatment group received four 90-minute group sessions of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), a novel treatment that combines exposure, cognitive reprocessing, and somatic stimulation. The control group received no treatment. Posttests were conducted 3 weeks later on those that completed all requirements ( ). The EFT group ( ) had significantly more depression at baseline than the control group ( ) (EFT BDI , versus control BDI , ). After controlling for baseline BDI score, the EFT group had significantly less depression than the control group at posttest, with a mean score in the “nondepressed” range ( ; EFT BDI , versus control BDI , ). Cohen’s was 2.28, indicating a very strong effect size. These results are consistent with those noted in other studies of EFT that included an assessment for depression and indicate the clinical usefulness of EFT as a brief, cost-effective, and efficacious treatment.

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Brief Group Intervention Using Emotional Freedom Techniques for Depression in College Students-A Randomized Controlled Trial

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