Acupuncture & Counselling Hasten Results in Depression Treatment

Research from the UK: acupuncture and counselling hasten results in depression treatmentA large UK multi-centre, randomised controlled trial has shown that adding either acupuncture or counselling to usual care, can hasten improvements in patients with moderate to severe depression. A total of 755 such patients were recruited from 27 GP practices across northern England, and randomised to one of three groups: acupuncture (302 patients), counselling (302 patients), or usual care alone (151 patients). Over a three month period, patients attended a mean of ten acupuncture sessions or nine counselling sessions. Patients were followed up over twelve months. Usual care, including antidepressants, was available to all three groups.

Compared with usual care alone, both acupuncture and counselling gave significantly greater reductions in depression scores, at both three and twelve months. Antidepressants fail to work in more than half of patients, and many patients would like to be offered drug-free treatment options.

(Acupuncture and counselling for depression in primary care: a randomised controlled trial. PLoS Medicine, 24 September 2013.)

Author: Robin Costello

I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training. I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.