Could acupuncture be a suitable alternative for pregnant women who are suffering from the blues but don't want to take antidepressant medications?
An estimated 14 per cent of expectant mothers experience depression, but many of them are reluctant to take prescription medication, fearing that the drugs may harm the fetus.
Yet depression, if left untreated, can pose serious risks to mother and child. It is associated with an increased chance of miscarriage, hypertension and low birth weight.
So researchers from Stanford University's school of medicine in California conducted a randomize trial to determine if acupuncture might be a viable option.
For the study, the team recruited 150 depressed pregnant women. Of those volunteers, a third of them received a form of traditional Chinese acupuncture in which the needles are inserted into specific sites thought to alleviate depression. Another third got sham acupuncture, in which the needles were not inserted into the traditional treatment sites. The remaining third were given massage therapy.
After eight weeks of treatment, there was greater improvement in the group that received the traditional acupuncture - 63 per cent of them reported a 50-per-cent or greater reduction in symptoms. By contrast, 44 per cent of women in the other two groups reported a similar level of improvement.
"The acupuncture protocol we tested has an efficacy that is equivalent to what you would find in standard depression treatment using antidepressant medications in the general population," said Rachel Manber, lead author of the study which was published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
If further studies confirm the results, the research could have implications for treating depression in general, not just during pregnancy, Dr. Manber added.