Acupuncture - Is It Effective treatment of Depression?

Published by editor | Filed under Depression

According to research and studies, acupuncture is found an effective treatment of depression. People who are severely or mildly depressed gain relief by the therapy of acupuncture.

Medication is also one of the most effective treatments of depression. Medication is effective for both depression and anxiety and proves to be very successful in both cases. However, generally people prefer to use natural cure whenever possible since medications do have side effects and also brings in toxic elements into the body.

So, because of the above mentioned drawbacks of medication people looks at the acupuncture therapy to fight depression. Scientific research supports the efficacy of acupuncture in reducing the severity of depression in patients. Although medical research doesn’t actually prove anything, it just supports the claims. If truth be told it is hard to decisively prove claims.

The study of acupuncture was conducted by the National Institute of Health, in 1998. Various acupuncture experiments were conducted on different patients. In these controlled experiments, all the patients who received acupuncture therapy for their depression collectively found a 43% fall in their depression symptoms. This proportion was 21% greater than the dummy control group. This implies that the acupuncture therapy have done something for the depression symptoms.

Theory on acupuncture and depression:

How acupuncture helps in reducing depression? According to acupuncture therapy there are energy pathways in the body described as ‘meridians’. The blockage of these meridians results in several types of illnesses and anxieties. By the way of this therapy these clogged up meridians are unblocked by inserting needles into definite points along these meridians. When the energy starts flowing again, the symptoms of the illness subside. In this way acupuncture works to reduce depression.

There is another way to treat the depression without the needles. If people don’t want treatment with needles then they have another option in the form of acupressure for relieving themselves from depression. Acupressure is also equally effective as acupuncture. In this therapy there is no use of needles. It simply involves proper tapping of certain points on particular meridians with finger tips. One of the interesting thing about this therapy is that people can use this therapy on there own and in this way, they need not to pay to any professional for this treatment.

Acupuncture and acupressure may prove to be equally effective as psychotherapy or drug therapy in the treatment of depression.

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