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Here is an article someone sent me. I thought it may be of interest-so enjoy:)

 

 

Source : <A HREF= " aol://4344:30.HEALTHY.5270736.577556590 " >The Latest Health

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Acupuncture might fight depression -U.S. study

 

 

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Acupuncture might work against depression,

psychologists wrote on Wednesday.

 

They said tests in a small group of women suggested that the Chinese needle

therapy may have some merit and proposed a larger trial.

 

John Allen of the University of Arizona and colleagues tested 38 women aged 18

to 45 with major depression. They were divided into three groups.

 

One group was given eight weeks of acupuncture treatment designed to target

their depression.

 

A second group waited eight weeks and then got the treatment. A third group

got acupuncture, but of a sort not aimed at the depression, for eight weeks,

then got the real treatment for eight weeks.

 

It is hard to provide a placebo or substitute for acupuncture -- patients know

whether needles are being stuck into them. So Allen's group directed the

acupuncturists treating the second group to treat them for headache or

backache.

 

The symptoms of all three groups got better over time. But the group that got

the depression-specific treatment straight away improved much more quickly,

and once the other two groups got the specific treatment their symptoms also

improved at a much faster rate.

 

``These findings from a small sample of women with major depression suggest

that acupuncture may hold sufficient efficacy to warrant a larger clinical

trial,'' Allen's team wrote in Psychological Science, a journal of the

American Psychological Society.

 

Allen said drugs and psychotherapy provide significant relief for 50 to 70

percent of patients.

 

``Unfortunately, about a third of people seeking treatment end that treatment

prematurely, citing factors such as dissatisfaction with their current

treatment or intolerable side effects,'' he said in a statement.

 

``These statistics suggest that alternative treatments may be welcomed by

those suffering from depression.''

 

Last November a panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded that

acupuncture does work sometimes, specifically for easing the nausea caused by

chemotherapy, anaesthesia and morning sickness and for the pain after a dental

operation.