Acupuncture for comorbid pain and depression 2023

Stimulated by Liao et al 2023.[1] MDD – major depressive disorderWMA – Western medical acupunctureTCM – traditional Chinese medicineBPI – brief pain inventoryRCT – randomised controlled trialGRADE – Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (a method of grading the quality or ‘certainty’ and strength or ‘effect size’ of evidence in healthcare)ES – effect sizeHAM-D … Continue reading Acupuncture for comorbid pain and depression 2023 →

EA for depression-related insomnia

Inspired by Yin et al 2022.[1] Photo by VAZHNIK on Pexels.com EA – electroacupunctureMA – manual acupunctureSC – standard carePSQI – Pittsburgh Sleep Quality IndexHAM-D – Hamilton Depression Rating ScaleHAMD-17 – the sum of the first 17 items on the HAM-Dkey to acronyms This 3-armed trial from Shanghai is the biggest trial (n=270) of acupuncture … Continue reading EA for depression-related insomnia →

EA in FD 2022

Inspired by Wu et al, Yang et al, & Li et al 2022.[1–3] Image by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash. EA – electroacupunctureFD – functional dyspepsia or functional diarrhoeaFDys – functional dyspepsia (in this blog)FDr – functional diarrhoea (in this blog)IBS – irritable bowel syndrometid – ter in die (3 times a day)tds – ter die sumendus (to be … Continue reading EA in FD 2022 →

Acupuncture in PMD

Inspired by Zhou et al 2022.[1] Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com PMD – perimenopausal depressionMA – manual acupunctureEA – electroacupunctureHAM-D – Hamilton Depression Rating ScaleHAMD-17 – the sum of the first 17 items on the HAM-DMENQOL – Menopause-specific Quality of Life QuestionnaireFSH – follicle stimulating hormoneLH – luteinising hormoneRCT – randomised controlled trialkey to … Continue reading Acupuncture in PMD →

Cortisol and the menopause 2021

Inspired by Cagnacci et al 2021.[1] Professor Angelo Cagnacci presenting at the BMAS Autumn Scientific Meeting in 2019. RCT – randomised controlled trialHRT – homone replacement therapyCVD – cardiovascular diseaseROS – reactive oxygen species (a form of free radicals)NO – nitrous oxidekey to acronyms This is the third and probably the last paper to come … Continue reading Cortisol and the menopause 2021 →

CHD risk in depression

Inspired by Huang et al 2021.[1] Photo by Jiroe on Unsplash. CHD – coronary heart diseaseFM – fibromyalgiaRA – rheumatoid arthritisOA – osteoarthritisPD – Parkinson’s diseaseNHIRD – National Health Insurance Research Database (Taiwan)aHR – adjusted hazard ratioMA – manual acupunctureEA – electroacupuncturekey to acronyms This is the fourth large retrospective observational cohort from Taiwan measuring … Continue reading CHD risk in depression →

Acupuncture and MDD

Stimulated by Hu et al 2021.[1] Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash. MDD – major depressive disorderNMA – network meta-analysisEA – electroacupunctureMA – manual acupunctureHAMD-17 – Hamilton depression rating scale (17 item)[2]SSRIs – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitorsSNRIs – serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitorsNASSAs – noradrenaline and specific serotoninergic antidepressantsTCAs – tricyclic antidepressantskey to acronyms This is the first network … Continue reading Acupuncture and MDD →

Acupuncture PD and depression

Stimulated by Huang et al 2020.[1] Sunset over Taipei City, Taiwan.Photo by Thomas Tucker on Unsplash. PD –Parkinson’s DiseaseLHID – Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (Taiwan)NHIRD – National Health Insurance Research Database (Taiwan)NHI – National Health Insurance (Taiwan)key to acronyms This is one of two papers from Taiwan I am highlighting on the blog this week … Continue reading Acupuncture PD and depression →

Acupuncture for antenatal depression

Stimulated by Ormsby et al 2020.[1] Photo by NEOSiAM 2020 on Pexels.com This is a pragmatic 3-arm comparative trial. It has feasibility in the title, so it may be that the authors are planning a much bigger version. I’ll ask! (No reply as yet...) Pregnant women of 24 weeks gestation who scored 13 or more … Continue reading Acupuncture for antenatal depression →

Depression stroke risk and acupuncture

Inspired by Chen et al J Affect Disord 2019.[1] Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash. The massive Taiwanese National Health Database strikes again! This time it was used to find new cases of depression between 1997 and 2010. The team found just over 55k cases. Of these, 13 823 received acupuncture treatment, and they were … Continue reading Depression stroke risk and acupuncture →