Up to a quarter of all women suffer from depression during pregnancy, but many refuse to take antidepressants.
Now, a new study suggests that acupuncture can relieve symptoms, but have found no evidence that is an effective treatment for depression in general.
The study by researchers at Stanford University, USA, recruited 150 depressed women who were enrolled between 12 and 30 weeks of pregnancy and randomly assigned to 52 are to receive an acupuncture treatment specifically designed to combat the symptoms of depression; 49 others to receive regular acupuncture, and the remaining 49, to get Swedish massages.
Each volunteer received twelve sessions of 25 minutes each. Patients who received acupuncture treatments did not know what kind they were.
In specific acupuncture treatments for depression, the needles are inserted into points on the body that correspond to symptoms of anxiety, withdrawal and apathy.
After eight weeks, almost 75% of women who had undergone acupuncture experienced antidepressant specific reduction of at least half of their symptoms, compared with only slightly less than half of women treated with massage or acupuncture normal.
There was no significant difference in complete remission rates: were about one third in each of the groups.