Acupuncture or counselling, provided alongside usual care, could benefit patients with depression, according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine. The results of the study, conducted by Dr Hugh MacPherson and colleagues, from the University of York, UK, found that within a primary care setting, combining acupuncture or counselling with usual care had some benefits after 3 months of treatment to patients with recurring depression. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme.
Many patients with depression are interested in receiving non-drug therapies, however, there is limited evidence to support the use of acupuncture or counselling for depression in a primary care setting. In this pragmatic randomised controlled trial conducted in the north of England, the authors randomised patients with depression to receive 12 weekly sessions of acupuncture plus usual care (302 patients), or 12 weekly sessions of counselling plus usual care (302 patients), or usual care alone (151 patients). Compared to usual care alone, there was a significant reduction in average depression scores at 3 months for both the acupuncture and counselling interventions, but there was no significant difference in depression scores between the acupuncture and counselling groups. At 9 months and 12 months, because of improvements in the depression scores in the usual care group, acupuncture and counselling were no longer significantly better than usual care. Although these findings are encouraging, this study does not identify which aspects of acupuncture and counselling are likely to be most beneficial to patients, nor does it provide information about the effectiveness of acupuncture or counselling, compared to usual care, for patients with mild depression.
The authors say: "To our knowledge, our study is the first to rigorously evaluate the clinical and economic impact of acupuncture and counselling for patients in primary care who are representative of those who continue to experience depression in primary care."
They continue: "We have provided evidence that acupuncture versus usual care and counselling versus usual care are both associated with a significant reduction in symptoms of depression in the short to medium term, and are not associated with serious adverse events. "
Funding:
This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research Programme (RP-PG-0707-10186). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The funders, and the University of York in its role as sponsor for the study, had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: MacPherson H, Richmond S, Bland M, Brealey S, Gabe R, et al. (2013) Acupuncture and Counselling for Depression in Primary Care: A Randomised Controlled Trial. PLoS Med 10(9): e1001518. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001518