Clinical evidence for acupuncture-assisted treatment of depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression.

If you or someone you love is living with depression, you may already know that antidepressant medications don't always provide complete relief — and sometimes come with unwanted side effects. A growing body of research has been looking at whether adding acupuncture to standard antidepressant treatment might help. A major new study published in General Hospital Psychiatry pulled together the results of 66 clinical trials involving 5,744 people to find out.

Researchers focused specifically on patients taking common antidepressants known as SSRIs or SNRIs — medications like sertraline, fluoxetine, or venlafaxine. They compared people who received acupuncture alongside their medication to those who took medication alone. The results were encouraging. People who received acupuncture in addition to their antidepressants showed significantly greater reductions in depression symptoms. They were also about 39% more likely to respond to treatment and nearly 60% more likely to achieve remission — meaning their symptoms largely cleared up.

Perhaps just as importantly, those receiving acupuncture reported fewer medication side effects, which is a common reason people stop taking antidepressants in the first place.

The researchers also found that acupuncture's benefits were stronger for people with more severe depression at the start of treatment, those who had been living with depression longer, and those who received acupuncture over a longer period of time.

It's worth noting that the study had some limitations. Many of the trials included were conducted in China, and not all used sham acupuncture as a comparison, which makes it harder to rule out placebo effects. The authors call for larger, more rigorous international trials before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Still, the findings are promising and suggest acupuncture may be a meaningful addition to conventional depression treatment for many people. If you're interested in exploring acupuncture as part of your mental health care, speak with your doctor and seek out a licensed, board-certified acupuncture practitioner.

This systematic review and meta-analysis (INPLASY202420002) evaluated acupuncture as an adjunctive intervention to SSRIs or SNRIs for depression across 66 RCTs and 5,744 participants, drawing from seven English and four Chinese-language databases through December 2024. Using random-effects models, the analysis found that acupuncture-assisted treatment significantly reduced HAMD scores (SMD = -1.185, 95% CI [-1.43, -0.94]) and medication side effect burden, measured by SERS (SMD = -0.896) and TESS (SMD = -1.469). Treatment response rate increased by 39.1% (RR = 1.391) and remission rate by 59.7% (RR = 1.597). Meta-regression identified baseline HAMD score, treatment duration, and disease duration as significant moderators of acupuncture's therapeutic effect. Limitations include high inter-study heterogeneity, publication bias, predominance of Chinese trial populations, and infrequent use of sham acupuncture controls. Clinically, acupuncture warrants consideration as an evidence-supported adjunct to pharmacotherapy in depression, particularly for patients with higher baseline severity or poor medication tolerability, pending more rigorous multicenter trials.