Acupuncture in
Mental Health

Mental Health

Mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorder, impact the lives of millions of people. Acupuncture can be used alongside psychiatric medications and psychotherapy with impressive results.

 

Traditional Acupuncture

According to the tenets of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), our physical and mental health depends on the uninterrupted flow of energy or Qi. If this flow is disrupted, disease ensues. Applying needles to specific acupuncture points along meridians rebalances the energy flow and promotes self-healing.

 

Is Acupuncture Just an Expensive Placebo?

Not in the least! By now, most of the experts agree that the success of acupuncture can NOT be attributed to the placebo effect. After all, most of the contemporary acupuncture research is conducted on animals.

 

Multiple different biological mechanisms have been investigated to explain acupuncture. The basic theories of acupuncturing can be summarized below:

 

1. Acupuncture stimulates peripheral nerves which, in turn, send impulses to the midbrain. In response, the brain sends descending signals through the dorsolateral tract, causing the release of the monoamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin) in the spinal cord. These neurotransmitters affect how we process pain and stress.

2. Acupuncture modulates numerous other biochemicals, including opioid and non-opioid neuropeptides, cytokines, glutamate, nitric oxide, and gamma-amino-butyric-acid (GABA) – to name a few.

3. Acupuncture prevents stress-induced changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system.

4. Acupuncture downregulates the inflammatory response through the autonomic nervous system.

5. Acupuncture alters genome-wide gene expression.

 

None of the proposed mechanisms of acupuncture action are sufficiently well understood. Scientific research is ongoing. Once thing we can be sure of – acupuncture works and works well for a variety of physical and mental health conditions!

 

Acupuncture in Mental Health

World Health Organization recommends acupuncture for the treatment of over 100 different conditions, including:

 

Anxiety

Anxiety ranks as the most common mental disorder. Anxiety manifests as a persistent feeling of apprehension, nervousness, and sympathetic arousal. An appropriate defensive response to the environmental stress in the short run, unrelenting anxiety can lead to insomnia, cardiovascular disease (high blood pressure), chronic pain (muscle tension), dizziness, difficulty concentrating, and gastrointestinal disorders.

 

Acupuncture has demonstrated a significant anti-anxiety effect by regulating monoamine and cortisol production while increasing GABA (inhibitory neurotransmitter) levels.

 

Depression

An estimated five percent of adult population suffer from depression. While pharmacotherapy remains the first‐line treatment for depression, its limited efficacy and multiple side effects prompt many patients to look for natural alternatives.

 

Thus, it comes as no surprise that acupuncture has been gaining popularity as a safe and low-cost approach to treating depression. Despite some limitations, modern research supports its effectiveness. We are thinking that acupuncture works via multiple biological pathways, for example, by regulating neurotransmitter levels, regulating the neuroendocrine (HPA) axis, improving neuroplasticity, and reducing inflammation,

 

Drug and alcohol use disorders

Acupuncture therapy alone or in combination with opioid receptor agonists can be used to reduce alcohol craving and withdrawal symptoms. Interestingly, both therapies target the endogenous opiate system.

 

In addition to its use in alcohol use disorder, acupuncture has shown good results in treating substance use disorders (cocaine, opioids, and nicotine). Acupuncture activates β-endorphin neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus projecting to the basal ganglia (the nucleus accumbens). The effect appears sustained and significant.

 

Posttraumatic stress disorder

PSTD can occur after a life-threatening, terrifying, or traumatic experience and can include symptoms such as emotional numbness, flashbacks, bad dreams, and feeling tense or “on-edge.” Acupuncture (including auriculotherapy) has proven to be effective in reducing these symptoms. Research demonstrated that acupuncture reduces the expression of certain substances (Bcl-2/Bax protein, COX-2, GRP78, CHOP, etc.) the hippocampus important for proper neuroprotection and apoptosis.

 

Smoking cessation

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Smoking is a complex phenomenon involving physical, psychological, social and other factors necessitating a multidisciplinary approach to therapy. Acupuncture – combined with counseling – may help motivated smokers quit tobacco while relieving withdrawal symptoms. Current research suggests that acupuncture lessens withdrawal symptoms by promoting the release of endogenous opioids and downregulating the body’s stress response. Salience network, consisting of anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and ventral striatum, appears to play mayor role in this process.

 

Weight loss (appetite control)

Acupuncture may reduce appetite by affecting the satiety and feeding centers of the hypothalamus via the vagus nerve. Additionally, acupuncture appears to suppress ghrelin production by gastrointestinal endocrine cells. The mechanism responsible for this phenomenon likely involves the vagus nerve as well.

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Pain reduction

Mental health disorders and chronic pain frequently coexist and aggravate each other. Chronic pain keeps the person in a perpetual stress state. Acupuncture has been shown to reduce pain and, indirectly, improve the mental state.

 

Insomnia

Insomnia can accompany and, worse, amplify most mental health issues. In fact, up to 15 percent of the adult population suffers from chronic insomnia. While cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and sleep medications remain the main approaches to therapy, nondrug therapies including acupuncture are gaining popularity.

 

Acupuncture has been shown to improve sleep quality and length. Although the mechanisms behind its effects are not fully understood, acupuncture likely works by modulating neurohormones, such as melatonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid.

 

I Take Meds … Can I Still Have Acupuncture?

Absolutely. Acupuncture doesn’t interfere with medications, and vice versa. In fact, if anything, there’s a synergistic effect: they help one another. Let’s say you take an SSRI. This medication prevents the breakdown or the re-uptake of serotonin, one of the brain key neurotransmitters. But what if your body doesn’t produce much serotonin in the first place? In this case, SSRIs are not going to help much. Acupuncture, on the other hand, has been shown to increase serotonin production naturally.

 

Benefits of Acupuncture

Immediate results

When treated with acupuncture, most patients will leave the clinic feeling better than when they walked in.

 

Accessibility

Compared to medication therapy and psychotherapy, acupuncture carries low cost.

 

Safety

Acupuncture doesn’t interfere with the medications you may be taking.

 

Mind-body integration

Acupuncture is a form of somatic (hands-on) therapy. It can help you get “grounded,” helping you reconnect the head with the body. For some patients, acupuncture opens up the door to memories, emotions, and beliefs that are otherwise beyond words and cognition.

 

How Often Should I Get Acupuncture?

For the best results, I recommend regular visits – once a week or every other week. Conversely, some folks prefer to see me on a strictly “as-needed” basis – when things get "too much." The latter is not ideal, in my opinion, but I will respect your idiosyncrasies and will never force you into any sort of subscription or “plans.”

 

What’s a Good Place to Have Acupuncture in St. Pete?

Glad you asked 😊. There are enough acupuncturists in Pinellas County for every type of patient and every condition imaginable. Give Point of Cure Acupuncture and Electromedicine a try. The first visit is FREE.