Acupuncture as a Treatment for Mental Illness

Studies using acupuncture as a treatment have been done, but many times there are problems with how the studies have been conducted. When there is a problem with a study, the results are unable to be used when researchers are trying to review them to extract data. Researchers often use existing studies that have been done when trying to see if a treatment is effective or not.

In the case of acupuncture, whether the acupuncture is considered to be effective or not, or how effective, depends upon the type of illness. Some studies are being done, but few studies have been well-designed.

Overall the consensus regarding acupuncture and depression is: That trials have found acupuncture works at least as effectively as medication concerning reduction of symptoms, but the placebo trials have shown the same effect also.

Let's take a quick look at three of the studies regarding depression:

One study states:

After the five weeks, “electro-acupuncture and amitriptyline were equally effective in decreasing depression, with significantly fewer side effects reported in the electro-acupuncture group.” One follow-up study using amitriptyline, electro-acupuncture plus amitriptyline, or electro-acupuncture plus placebo treatments groups, and another studying amitriptyline or electro-acupuncture plus placebo both displayed nearly equal improvement, but there “were no differences in effectiveness among the groups(Larzelere & Wiseman, 2002).”

 In another study in which depression and acupuncture was studied:

After completion of acupuncture treatment for depression, 70% of women experienced at least a 50% reduction of symptoms, results comparable to the success rate of psychotherapy and medication.

 And in another study:

Another research team investigated the effects of acupuncture in combination with medications in order to determine the efficacy of acupuncture.  Over a period of two years, the researchers randomly assigned 70 depressed patients to a treatment of mianserin anti-depressant medication, mianserin plus acupuncture, or mianserin plus placebo acupuncture.  “In all cases, there was greater improvement when acupuncture (placebo or verum) was applied compared to plain pharmacological treatment.”

One thing that was noticed in one study was that anxiety levels dropped more with the use of acupuncture than with the use of an anti-depressant.

There are some studies that state that acupuncture may be effective in mania as well. Once again, part of the problem is that studies that exist (that have already been conducted) may not be considered credible. They may not be double-blind or there may not have been a control group. A study may have had people quit early.

Acupuncture and mental illness has been followed as evidenced by the following:

Staff at a community mental health center in Waco, Texas, followed 16 outpatients with severe and chronic mental illness from January 1991 through December 1997 (2). The patients frequently self-medicated with nicotine, alcohol, and street drugs. They could not cope on their own. The five-point auricular acupuncture detoxification protocol developed by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association was used to treat the nicotine habit of the patients for two of the seven years. During that time, only one patient was hospitalized for a two-day stay compared with a baseline average hospitalization for the 16 patients of two or three times a year and an average stay of three to six months. Patients formed a community, functioned independently, and lived a much more normal life. As a study, there was no control group and there are not sufficient numbers of people in the study.

In 2006 the Cochrane Review determined that there was “insufficient evidence to recommend the use of acupuncture for people with Schizophrenia. The numbers of participants and the blinding of acupuncture studies have been inadequate. Better designed studies are needed to determine the effects of acupuncture for schizophrenia.

More information can be found in the references listed below.

References:

Larzelere, M.M., Wiseman, P. (2002). Anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Primary Care, 29(2), 339-360.

Manber, R., Allen, J.J., Morris, M.M. (2002). Alternative treatments for depression: empirical support and relevance to women. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 63(7), 628-640.

Roschke, J., Wolf, Ch., Muller, M.J., Wagner, P., Mann, K., Grozinger, M., Bech, S. (2000). The benefit from whole body acupuncture in major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 57, 73-81.

Smith, C.A., Hay, P.P.J. (2004). Acupuncture for depression. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 3.

Ackerman JM: Diagnostic and treatment uses of acupuncture in psychiatry. Presented at symposium 108, American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, Toronto, Ontario, May 30-June 4, 1998

Atwood T: Acudetox as an alternative treatment for symptom management of serious mental illness. Presented at the international congress of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, Milan, Italy, Oct 11-12, 1997

Shi ZX, Tan MZ: An analysis of the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment in 500 cases of schizophrenia. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine 6:99-104, 1986

Zhang LD, Hu SH, Tang YH, et al: A comparative study of the treatment of schizophrenia with electric acupuncture, herbal decoction, and chlorpromazine. American Journal of Acupuncture 18:11-14, 1990

NIH Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture: Program and Abstracts. Bethesda, Md, National Institutes of Health, Nov 3-5, 1997