School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6UW, UK.
Auton Neurosci. 2010 Oct 28;157(1-2):91-5. doi: 10.1016/j.autneu.2010.04.002. Epub 2010 May 6.
Depression and anxiety together constitute a significant contribution to the global burden of disease. Acupuncture is widely used for treatment of anxiety and depression and use is increasing. The theoretical basis for acupuncture diagnosis and treatment derives from traditional Chinese medicine theory. An alternative approach is used in medical acupuncture which relies more heavily on contemporary neurophysiology and conventional diagnosis. Trials in depression, anxiety disorders and short-term acute anxiety have been conducted but acupuncture interventions employed in trials vary as do the controls against which these are compared. Many trials also suffer from small sample sizes. Consequently, it has not proved possible to accurately assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for these conditions or the relative effectiveness of different treatment regimens. The results of studies showing similar effects of needling at specific and non-specific points have further complicated the interpretation of results. In addition to measuring clinical response, several clinical studies have assessed changes in levels of neurotransmitters and other biological response modifiers in an attempt to elucidate the specific biological actions of acupuncture. The findings offer some preliminary data requiring further investigation.
抑郁和焦虑共同构成了全球疾病负担的重要组成部分。针灸被广泛用于治疗焦虑和抑郁，并且其应用正在增加。针灸诊断和治疗的理论基础源自于中医理论。另一种方法在医疗针灸中使用，它更依赖于当代神经生理学和常规诊断。已经进行了针对抑郁症、焦虑症和短期急性焦虑的试验，但试验中采用的针灸干预措施各不相同，与这些干预措施进行比较的对照也不同。许多试验还存在样本量小的问题。因此，还不能准确评估针灸对这些病症的有效性，也不能评估不同治疗方案的相对有效性。研究结果表明，在特定和非特定穴位针刺具有相似的效果，这进一步增加了对结果的解释的复杂性。除了测量临床反应外，一些临床研究还评估了神经递质和其他生物反应调节剂水平的变化，试图阐明针灸的具体生物学作用。这些发现提供了一些需要进一步研究的初步数据。
