To cite this article:
Muthmainah and Nurwati Ida. Medical Acupuncture. December 2016, 28(6): 301-307. doi:10.1089/acu.2016.1180.
Published in Volume: 28 Issue 6: December 1, 2016
Online Ahead of Print: September 19, 2016
ABSTRACT
Background: Depression is a common psychiatric disorder. Many depressed patients do not respond fully to current medications. Acupuncture has been widely used as an add-on treatment for depression. However, how acupuncture works to produce its antidepressant effect has not been understood fully.
Objective: This article discusses possible mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture in ameliorating depressive symptoms in correlation with theories of depression.
Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were used to search for original and review articles with the following keywords: acupuncture AND depression; acupuncture AND monoamine; acupuncture AND BDNF; acupuncture AND inflammation; acupuncture AND cytokine; and stress AND depression.
Results: Various kinds of evidence showed that acupuncture might be beneficial for treating depression via modulation of the central monoaminergic system, the hypothalmic–pituitary–adrenal axis, brain neurotrophin, and the neuroimmune system.
Conclusion: Multiple pathways seem to be involved in the mechanism of action of acupuncture, and these mechanisms may work together to produce the antidepressant effects of acupuncture.