SynthesisMedicine2026
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA common mental health issue with major worldwide repercussions is depression. Psychological therapy and pharmaceutical treatments are the mainstays of modern depression treatment approaches. Numerous clinical studies have investigated acupuncture's potential role in treating depression, which has led to its rise in popularity as a treatment. Clinical research on its effectiveness and safety, however, has produced conflicting results. By examining randomized controlled trials that compared acupuncture treatment with traditional medication therapy, this study sought to clarify the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture as a stand-alone therapy for patients with depression.
methodsFrom January 2014 to December 2024, a computerized search of the literature on acupuncture for patients with depression was carried out using data from the VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, Wanfang, the Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The data extraction and literature screening were carried out independently by 2 researchers. The RevMan 5.4 software was used to conduct a meta-analysis of the study, which included 20 randomized controlled trials with 1427 individuals.
resultsThe meta-analysis results, based on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores, showed a statistically significant difference favoring acupuncture over medication (standardized mean difference: -0.27; 95% confidence interval: -0.41 to -0.12; P = .0003; I2 = 23%; n = 769). The effective rate analysis also favored acupuncture (risk ratio: 1.07; 95% confidence interval: 1.03 to 1.12; P = .001; I2 = 0%; n = 1427).
conclusionThe available clinical evidence suggests that acupuncture shows promise as a potentially useful intervention for depression, with a favorable safety profile. However, due to methodological limitations - including a pervasive risk of bias, the absence of sham-controlled comparisons, and the lack of standardized protocols - the evidence quality is low. High-quality research with rigorous methodology and larger sample sizes is required to confirm these findings.
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