What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is a form of healthcare that has been used to treat a variety of ailments for thousands of years. It’s perhaps most famous in North America for treating pain, but its scope stretches well beyond musculoskeletal complaints. If you’re experiencing invisible illnesses such as anxiety and depression or insomnia, acupuncture and Chinese herbology can benefit you greatly. It will address each symptom involved in your experience of illness while simultaneously treating the root cause.
Multiple modern scientific studies have illustrated the efficacy of acupuncture in treating mental health conditions. In one 2013 study of 120 patients in Sweden, acupuncture treatment and integrative treatment including acupuncture were found to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression with much greater efficacy than conventional Western treatment methods involving solely medication and therapy. At the end of the 8 week study, conventional treatment methods alone were found to bring about “clinically non-significant” results, whereas acupuncture treatments and integrative treatments including acupuncture were found to significantly decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression.(1)
How can it treat mental health issues?
Chinese Medicine is an entirely separate and distinct medical system that predates Biomedicine by hundreds upon hundreds of years, but recent research has revealed several biomedical mechanisms of actions that explain some of the many ways that acupuncture works. One such explanation is that acupuncture needles interact with the nervous system directly to release chemicals that regulate various bodily functions, including endorphins. Endorphins are often lovingly referred to as “feel-good” chemicals because they’re integral to regulating the body’s various stress responses to different triggers. Acupuncture also generally calms the brain’s response to stress, which is part of why acupuncture treatments feel so relaxing and restorative.(2)
Acupuncture is a wonderful complementary treatment for your mental and emotional health concerns. For the best results, get regular acupuncture treatments alongside regular therapy sessions and other conventional treatments that have been helping you. Chinese Medicine herbology can also be incredibly effective for treating anxiety, depression, and mood disorders. Your Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (R.TCMP) will advise you if you’re a candidate for herbs and avoid prescribing any medicinals that have known interactions with your medications.
How many treatments does it take to experience results?
A typical treatment plan for chronic anxiety or depression might begin with 2 treatments per week for the 1-2 weeks, followed by weekly treatments for the next 10 weeks or more. The longer you’ve had your anxiety or depression, the longer it will take to resolve. If you’ve had your anxiety for years or “as long as you can remember”, you may need to come in for regular treatments for several months for lasting results. When your symptoms have resolved and are no longer returning in between appointments, your practitioner will space your treatments out to once every other week, and eventually once per month. I recommend returning for treatment once per month for mental health maintenance in the same way that you would continue to return to therapy, or continue to return to the gym for prolonged benefits.
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Check out EvidenceBasedAcupuncture.org for further reading about modern understandings of acupuncture.
(1) Arvidsdotter, T., Marklund, B. & Taft, C. Effects of an integrative treatment, therapeutic acupuncture and conventional treatment in alleviating psychological distress in primary care patients – a pragmatic randomized controlled trial. BMC Complement Altern Med 13, 308 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-13-308
(2) Junghans, K. (n.d.). Acupuncture as a Therapeutic Treatment for Anxiety. Evidence Based Acupuncture. https://www.evidencebasedacupuncture.org/acupuncture-anxiety/
