Acupuncture for mental health

Can acupuncture help mental health conditions?

Acupuncture, an ancient practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has increasingly gained attention in the modern world for its potential benefits beyond physical health conditions. As mental health challenges become more prevalent, many are seeking alternative or complementary therapies to support their well-being. This raises the question: can acupuncture help with mental health conditions? In this article, we will explore how acupuncture works, the scientific evidence behind its use for mental health, and whether it might be a valuable addition to conventional treatments for conditions such as anxiety, depression and stress.

From a Western medicine perspective, it is thought that acupuncture can work on mental illness by increasing several central nervous system neurotransmitters and hormones, such as serotonin, acetylcholine, endorphins and noradrenaline (Samuels et al., 2008). However, Chinese medicine considers acupuncture to work on ‘qi’, which is considered the body’s life force, and is responsible for maintaining the body’s physiological processes, emotional balance, and overall health. When qi flows smoothly and is in balance, the body is in a state of health. Conversely, when qi is blocked, deficient, or excessive, it can lead to illness or disease (Maciocia, 2015).  Patients often turn to acupuncture to help reduce stress and anxiety, and have reported good outcomes with their experiences with treatment (Huang et al., 2012).

Findings:

Evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture for mental illness varies across studies, so a definitive answer is difficult to achieve.  However, when looking at high quality studies and meta-analyses and systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCT), acupuncture often proves to have a positive result on improving mental health.  A recent study that reviewed 20 RCT’s found that acupuncture was more effective than the control on reducing anxiety symptoms (Yang et al., 2021).

Furthermore, a study commissioned by the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association in 2017 reviewed existing studies on a range of conditions to determine if acupuncture was efficacious.  They rated their findings with an outcome in the following scale: no evidence, insufficient evidence, potential positive effect, and positive effect.  When assessing studies against common mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, PTSD and schizophrenia, acupuncture was rated as having a ‘potential positive’ effect.  Meaning that the RCT’s reported moderate positive effects, however the evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions (Mcdonald & Jansz, 2017).  Another high-quality systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration looked at 64 trials on acupuncture for depression, and found that the effect of acupuncture compared to psychological treatments was unclear, however the risk of adverse events was low (Smith et al., 2018).

There are some limitations in the research, however. Many studies on acupuncture and mental health suffer from methodological issues, such as small sample sizes, lack of blinding, and inadequate control groups. This makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. Additionally, the placebo effect is a significant concern in acupuncture research. Some studies suggest that the benefits of acupuncture for mental health may be partly due to patients’ expectations of improvement rather than the specific effects of acupuncture itself. Finally, results across studies can be inconsistent, with some showing significant benefits and others showing little to no effect. This inconsistency may be due to differences in study design, patient populations, acupuncture protocols, and researcher bias (Mcdonald & Jansz, 2017; Yang et al., 2021).

So, what does all this mean in reality?  Well, the science says it might work, but it is something you will need to try yourself and determine how effective it is for you!  Afterall, everyone is different and may respond to acupuncture treatment differently. What have you got to lose, right?  But what we do know is that an acupuncture can really help you unwind and de-stress, even if you think of it in the most basic form, it is an hour out of your busy schedule where you get to relax on a table with soothing music and your eyes closed.   Furthermore, it’s a time to debrief on life’s challenges and stressors with your practitioner, and an opportunity to express your thoughts and use your time away from the world to process them.

You are deserving of some time for yourself, so why not try acupuncture and see how it might help with your specific conditions? Our practitioners are always available to help understand your conditions and formulate a treatment plan and strategy to get you back on track and work towards your health and wellbeing goals.

So, in conclusion, whilst many patients report positive effects of acupuncture for mental health conditions, the evidence supporting this varies between studies, which means it is not possible to say with complete certainty that acupuncture will improve mental health conditions. Regardless, the use of acupuncture for mental health conditions should be used in conjunction with advice received from western medicine professionals and is not designed to be a replacement for counselling, psychology or pharmaceutical interventions, but can be used safely as an adjunct or complementary therapy.

References:

Huang, W., Howie, J., & Robinson, N. (2012). Focus groups used to explore patients’ experience in a randomised controlled trial of traditional Chinese acupuncture for chronic stress. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 4(1), e19-e26. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2011.12.001

Maciocia, G. (2015). The Foundations of Chinese Medicine : a Comprehensive Text (3rd ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences UK. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=2072089

Mcdonald, J., & Jansz, S. (2017). The Acupuncture Evidence Project – A Comparative Literature Review (AACMA, Issue.

Samuels, N. M. D., Gropp, C. M. D., Singer, S. R. M. D., & Oberbaum, M. M. D. (2008). Acupuncture for Psychiatric Illness: A Literature Review. Behavioral Medicine, 34(2), 55-64.

Smith, C. A., Armour, M., Lee, M. S., Wang, L.-Q., & Hay, P. J. (2018). Acupuncture for depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2018(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004046.pub4

Yang, X.-y., Yang, N.-b., Huang, F.-f., Ren, S., & Li, Z.-j. (2021). Effectiveness of acupuncture on anxiety disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Annals of General Psychiatry, 20(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-021-00327-5