Acupuncture May Help Depression During Pregnancy

A new study has found that acupuncture may be a safe and helpful alternative to medication for depression during pregnancy.

"We tested acupuncture as a standalone treatment," said study author Rachel Manber, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, "and the results are very positive."

For the study, Manber and her team recruited 150 pregnant women who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder. All study participants were between 12 and 30 weeks pregnant.

The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups: depression-specific acupuncture, control acupuncture or massage. The depression-specific acupuncture was a protocol specially designed for the study while the control acupuncture involved needling acupuncture points not known to be associated with depression relief.

The women were treated for eight weeks, twice a week in the first four weeks and then once a week for the remainder of the study. Treatment sessions lasted about 25 minutes.

The researchers found a 63% response rate in women receiving depression-specific acupuncture versus a response rate of 44.3% in the other two groups.

Manber noted that while they found the acupuncture protocol to be effective, this does not mean that treatment with acupuncture will always be helpful. "The quality of what you get can differ from one practitioner to another," she said.

According to Manber's colleage, Dr. Shari Ruskin, director of reproductive psychiatry at the New York University Langone Medical Center, the bottom line is you should talk with your doctor about what is best for you. "Depression is not a one-size-fits-all illness and treatment won't be one-size-fits-all either."

The study will be published in the March issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Tags: Pregnancy

Category: Acupuncture Treatment