Exploring the Role of Acupuncture in Mental Health: Addressing Depression and Anxiety

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-604-8_31How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Acupuncture; Anxiety; Depression; Mental Health

Abstract

The World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Report highlights the global prevalence of mental disorders, with anxiety and depressive disorders being the most common. Existing treatments for depression and anxiety often use antidepressants and anxiolytics, which have unwanted side effects, delayed onset of action, inadequate efficacy, and risk of dependence. Nonpharmacological therapies like psychotherapy, meditation, and physical exercise offer safer alternatives but may take longer to show effective results. The limitations of both approaches highlight the need for complementary therapies that can improve treatment efficacy without increasing the burden of side effects. This limited review examines the role of acupuncture in overcoming mental health problems by conducting a literature search. According to a variety of research findings, acupuncture is a promising nonpharmacological treatment for reducing depression and anxiety symptoms; it also can be combined with pharmacological treatment or complementary medicine to improve outcomes. Compared to pharmacological therapies, acupuncture is less expensive and has fewer side effects. Evidence suggests that acupuncture plus pharmacological treatment is more effective than drugs alone, safe, well tolerated, and has a rapid onset of action. This review provides valuable insights for researchers investigating nonpharmacological treatments for mental health problems.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Agitha Melita Putri
AU  - Wahyuningsih Djaali
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/19
TI  - Exploring the Role of Acupuncture in Mental Health: Addressing Depression and Anxiety
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Medical Science and Health (ICOMESH 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 357
EP  - 367
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-604-8_31
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-604-8_31
ID  - Putri2024
ER  -