A study published in the March 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that a few months of acupuncture may help pregnant women who suffer from depression. The study followed 150 women with major depression and found that overall, 63% responded to “depression-specific” acupuncture. The study showed that after eight weeks of therapy, the severity of symptoms in those that responded to treatment was reduced by at least 50%, and these women no longer met the criteria for diagnosing major depression.
The results of this study are encouraging because they suggest that acupuncture is a viable treatment option for pregnant women who suffer from depression, one that does not carry the risks of medications commonly used in this setting. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class that includes drugs such as Zoloft, Paxil, and Prozac, are often used to manage depression in pregnant women but they readily cross the blood-placenta barrier and the effect on fetal development is largely unknown. A recent study showed that pregnant women who started taking SSRIs in the second or third trimester had a higher risk of preterm delivery.
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L5JB20100222
http://www.nature.com/clpt/journal/v86/n6/full/clpt2009201a.html
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2009/premature-birth-risk-higher-for-pregnant-women-taking-ssris-or-suffering-from-untreated-depression.shtml
