Acupuncture for Depression?

@article{Ernst2011AcupunctureFD,
  title={Acupuncture for Depression?},
  author={Edzard Ernst and Myeong Soo Lee and Tae-Young Choi},
  journal={Evaluation \& the Health Professions},
  year={2011},
  volume={34},
  pages={403 - 412}
}
Acupuncture is often advocated as a treatment for depression, and several trials have tested its effectiveness. Their results are contradictory and even systematic reviews of these data do not arrive at uniform conclusions. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate all systematic reviews of the subject with a view of assisting clinical decisions. Thirteen electronic databases were searched to identify all relevant articles. Data of these systematic reviews and the primary studies they… 
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14 Citations

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Commentary on the Cochrane Review of acupuncture for depression.
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An updated review on the potential uses of complementary and alternative medicine approaches for the management of patients with mood and anxiety disorders and a discussion of more recent studies that help to further inform practitioners about CAM interventions in these disorders.
Antidepressant Monotherapy and Combination Therapy with Acupuncture in Depressed Patients: A Resting-State Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Study.
TLDR
Investigating the efficacy and mechanism of combining acupuncture with antidepressants in treating depression found depressed patients receiving acupuncture combined with antidepressants have improvement of depressive symptoms and the stronger rsFC in the DLPFC compared to those using antidepressants alone.
Complementary and alternative medicine therapies in mood disorders
TLDR
There is an increasing number of research studies on CAM intervention in mood disorders, and this article critiques such data and attempts to provide a clinical perspective within which these CAM interventions might be considered.
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TLDR
The objective is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for postnatal depression and to establish a protocol for evaluating the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture in relation to antidepressants.
The Periodicity of Acupuncture Effect and the Mechanism of Vibrating Regulation of Acupuncture
TLDR
In summary, acupuncture is a technique of auto-regulation and bi-directional regulation that regulates the bodily function by vibrating the various functions of all systems and all organs in the body to find individual balance point and adequate level automatically in the process of functional oscillation.
The risks of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use in infertile women: a review of the impact on fertility, pregnancy, neonatal health and beyond.
TLDR
There is little evidence that infertile women benefit from taking an SSRI, therefore they should be counseled appropriately about the risks and be advised to consider alternate safer treatments to treat depressive symptoms.
Database combinations to retrieve systematic reviews in overviews of reviews: a methodological study
TLDR
MEDLINE and Epistemonikos, complemented by reference checking of included studies, is the best database combination to identify systematic reviews on health-related topics.
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References

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