Acupuncture offers relief from depression during pregnancy

[Sanity Claws]

The Stanford University study recruited 150 depressed women who were 12 to 30 weeks pregnant, and randomly assigned 52 to receive acupuncture specifically designed for depressive symptoms, 49 to regular acupuncture and 49 to Swedish massage.

Each woman received 12 sessions of 25 minutes each; those given acupuncture did not know which type they were getting. (In the depression-specific treatment, needles are inserted at body points that are said to correspond to symptoms like anxiety, withdrawal and apathy.)

After eight weeks, almost two-thirds of the women who had depression-specific acupuncture experienced a reduction in at least 50 percent of their symptoms, compared with just under half of the women treated with either massage or regular acupuncture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/health/research/02preg.html?ref=health

[zazen]

1. why would someone unrecommend this thread? it's a STANFORD U study

I for one would like to see non-pharmacological treatments for depression, esp. during pregnancy. If someone is going to unrecommend this, I wish they'd have the courtesy to explain themselves.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Yes

I noticed that too. There are some posters who automatically unrecommend anything regarding acupuncture.

[Orrex]

3. Don't take it personally

You could post a thread titled "Kittens are Cute" and somebody would unrec it. It's a common occurrence on DU.

[pnwmom]

4. Which is why the unrec button is so stupid. n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Don't sweat the unrecs

It's more a device for registering emotions than actual votes.

I'm not sure why anyone would unrec this, either, and I'm as strong a science-and-nothing-else medical purist myself. Some people just have their alarm threshold set way too low. If it's a bad study, it will be gone and forgotten in a week; if it's good, it will be good until otherwise superseded.

--d!

[semillama]

6. This statement is interesting

"There was no significant difference in the rates of complete remission — about a third in each group. The findings appear in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology."

So, if there is no significant difference, then how can anyone say that the acupuncture specifically designed for depression is really any better than regular old acupuncture or the massage? Especially on the results of one sample (the experiment was not apparently repeated)?

And how would you control for the person administering the acupuncture? Would they perhaps have a different approach, different body language that could affect how the patients perceived the efficacy of the treatment?

[Celebration]

7. acupuncture studies should go the route of SSRIs

Make the studies so HUGE that even a tiny difference would should up as statistically significant.

But sham acupuncture sounds good as well. Personally, I would much rather have sham acupuncture and have it work, than get a placebo effect from Prozac, and especially if pregnant!

Have there ever been studies showing that sham acupuncture actually releases endorphins? Because, uh, that would explain a lot.

[HuckleB]

8. Indeed.

The study's claims are looked at more intensely here:
http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/2010/02/acupuncture-treats-depression-in.html

[mopinko]

9. i'll take the spa.

i think what they showed was that depressed pregnant women feel better when someone gives a shit.

[HuckleB]

10. You're probably quite right.

Go for the massage!

[semillama]

11. My wife loved her prenatal massage

and she wasn't even depressed!