Does Acupuncture Really Help to Ease Depression?

Russell Chapman October 05, 2011

I am often asked if Acupuncture can help with depression, and while the answer is yes I always feel a simple "yes or "no" doesn’t completely explain why, so I thought here would be a good place to layout my thoughts.

So settle back with a metaphorical Coffee (or whatever takes your fancy) and I will take you on a whirlwind tour of Energy, Health and Happiness.

To begin, a little of my background, I came to study Acupuncture after ten years of practising and studying Chinese martial arts, (Kung Fu and Tai Chi), Daoism and Qi Gong. So before I began studying Acupuncture I was aware, to a degree, of my own energy or Qi. So as far as I am concerned Qi informs, nourishes, warms, and moves every aspect of my being.

Acupuncture moves and manipulates Qi. That’s it, plain and simple. There is a life time of study and practice to decide which aspect of Qi to work with and how to move it, but fundamentally all traditional acupuncturists move and manipulate Qi.

When your Qi flows smoothly and evenly, and is abundant then you have good health. The other side of the coin is that any disruption or blocking of Qi, or any depletion of Qi, will result in poorer health. Because Qi affects all aspects of our being, disturbed Qi is reflected in disturbed emotions, which could manifest itself as depression.

Do I have any evidence that acupuncture can help with conditions like depression? Well yes, I am part of a research group (South West Acupuncture Research Group, or SWARG for short) and we conducted a survey of 1158 patients between 1998 and 2000. We found that 18% of patients either described themselves as depressed or had symptoms normally linked in conventional medicine to depression. We also found that patients scored an improvement in symptoms that was in line with all other conditions.

So how was that for you? If you found yourself uncomfortable with what I’ve written it may be that I am challenging you at deep level. If so you can walk away and discuss this with other Acupuncturists because one very important element of any good Acupuncture is that the patient needs to find the right practitioner for them. I truly wish you luck in your search.

All the best!