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Beneficial Effect of Acupuncture on Depression

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Acupuncture Therapy for Neurological Diseases

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Abstract

This chapter presents the clinical and laboratory evidence regarding the effect of acupuncture on depression and its potential mechanisms. Most of the clinical studies have demonstrated that either acupuncture alone or acupuncture combined with other therapies has a therapeutic effect on subjects with depression. There were significant differences in the scores of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMA) before and after treatment with acupuncture in patients suffering from depression. The adverse effects were less and milder in the group under acupuncture treatment than in those under regular medication. Studies on the mechanisms of acupuncture suggest that acupuncture or electroacupuncture (EA) could change the concentrations of monoamine neurotransmitters and their metabolites in the brain, which was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrochemical detection (HPLC-ECD). Acupuncture signals were also observed to modulate the immune system and improve the function of neuroendocrine system, especially the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. There are also evidences implying that the regulation of intracellular signal transduction is involved in the antidepressant-like effect of EA treatment. Lastly, the hippocampus, an important brain structure that plays a key role in the etiology of depression, has been observed to be involved in the mechanism of acupuncture. In an earlier study, the neuropeptide Y-immunoreactive cells in area CA1 and the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus were observed to decrease in the depressed animals, but significantly increase in the acupuncture-treated animals. In addition, acupuncture was observed to attenuate the decrease in the hippocampal progenitor cell proliferation, and increase the number of the neurons containing the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus of the depressed animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Integrative Medicine and Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P.R. China

    Qiong Liu & Jin Yu

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  1. Qiong Liu
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  2. Jin Yu
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Ying Xia

  2. State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P.R. China

    Xiaoding Cao , Gencheng Wu  & Jieshi Cheng ,  & 

  3. Department of Integrative Medicine and Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, P.R. China

    Xiaoding Cao , Gencheng Wu  & Jieshi Cheng ,  & 

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© 2010 Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Liu, Q., Yu, J. (2010). Beneficial Effect of Acupuncture on Depression. In: Xia, Y., Cao, X., Wu, G., Cheng, J. (eds) Acupuncture Therapy for Neurological Diseases. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10857-0_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10857-0_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10855-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10857-0

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