Blues sufferers looking for alternatives to antidepressants may want to take up needlepoint. A new study shows that acupuncture effectively lifts the moods of women with depression. John Allen, Ph.D., an associate psychology professor at the University of Arizona, and colleagues recruited a group of 38 clinically depressed women and gave the needle treatment to one third of them. Another third of women were told that they were receiving the traditional Chinese therapy but were really being treated for other ailments; the final, control, group was placed on a waiting list for treatment.

After two months, around 50% of patients getting acupuncture for depression showed no symptoms of the mood disorder. "It appears that acupuncture provides rates of relief from depression comparable to those seen in trials of antidepressants or psychotherapy," says Allen, whose findings are reported in Psychological Science. One advantage of acupuncture: Its intricate technique of needle placement allows practitioners to tailor treatments specially for each individual patient. At the Firshein center acupuncture is just one of the modalities we use.

By Dr. Richard Firsein, D.O.

by Dr. Richard Firshein