Acupuncture has 'similar mode of action to psychiatric drugs'

In a controlled experiment with rats, acupuncture was effective against treating chronic stress, according to a report in the journal Endocrinology - with the results suggesting a mode of action similar to that of anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs.

Acupuncture works for many - but how?

Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) in Washington, DC, say the animal study "provides the strongest evidence to date on the mechanism of this ancient Chinese therapy in chronic stress."

The benefits of acupuncture are well known by those who use it, but such proof is anecdotal.

This research, the culmination of a number of studies, demonstrates how acupuncture might work in the human body to reduce stress and pain, and, potentially, depression.

"We have now found a potential mechanism, and at this point in our research, we need to test human participants in a blinded, placebo-controlled clinical study - the same technique we used to study the behavioral effects of acupuncture in rats."

The research team team applied electro-acupuncture to a powerful acupuncture point called stomach meridian point 36 (St36).

The researchers found that this blunted activity in the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis - the chronic stress pathway associated with chronic pain, the immune system, mood and emotions.

Affecting the HPA via acupuncture reduced the production of stress hormones. Some antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs exert their therapeutic effects on these same mechanisms.

Researchers have already shown that pre-treatment with acupuncture prevents increases in HPA hormones caused by cold-induced painful stress in rats, and that the beneficial effects were long-lasting.

Traditional medicine put to scientific tests

The controlled animal study had four arms:

• A group of rats getting acupuncture via electro-acupuncture (a device that ensures equitable distribution of electro-stimulation)
• A group receiving sham acupuncture (not at an acupuncture point)
• Placebo arm not getting any acupuncture
• Control group with exposure to neither stress nor acupuncture.

Two studies examined different times of application - the first, having acupuncture regularly, and the latest study examining acupuncture during a stressful event - which,researchers say, "is how acupuncture is most often utilized clinically."

Electro-acupuncture delivered to the St36 acupuncture point minutes after the rats were exposed to chronic painful cold was as effective in preventing elevation of stress hormones as it was with pre-treatment with acupuncture.

The new study also used a drug to block acupuncture's effect on the HPA system - production of stress hormones equalized in all the treatment groups. This confirmed that electro-acupuncture does affect the HPA system.

This is the first report linking the effects of electro-acupuncture at St36 to chronic stress-induced depressive and anxious behavior in animals - acupuncture appeared to prevent stress-induced release of hormones, as well as reduce depression and anxiety-like behavior in the rats.

This work provides a framework for future clinical studies on the benefit of acupuncture, both before or during chronic stressful events.

References:

Effects of acupuncture, RU-486 on the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis in chronically stressed adult male rats, Ladan Eshkevari et al.,Endocrinology doi: 10.1210/EN.2015-1018, published online 21 July 2015, abstract.