Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has an integral component in acupuncture Saratoga Springs , a healing procedure crafted over 2500 years ago in China and practiced widely even now there and in parts of Southeast Asia. Western society sees acupuncture as mostly pain treatment ironically using needles in ultra thin form inserted at points in the body called acupoints. Because of the integral metaphysical aspect of acupuncture, Western science has dismissed this unique modality because they have tried to study and understand it in vain. However, Western science cannot explain away why and how acupuncture truly works especially in addressing extreme emotions such as depression.
Acupuncture treatment bases its knowledge in knowing and understanding acupoints and meridians that travel underneath these acupoints, which are energy vessels where life giving energy called chi travels to energize and nourish the whole body with this life-giving and life-sustaining energy. TCM states that chi needs to flow without any obstruction whatsoever and at the same time the forces of chi, yin and yang, need to be in harmonic balance to maintain health and well-being to the body. In the treatment of depression, the needles are often inserted on the right side of the body to rectify chi flow and treat depression.
Women are the most prone to depression. A Tucson research grouped women suffering from mild depression into three. One group was given the right acupuncture treatment for depression. The other group used a certain kind of acupuncture treatment intended to treat different kinds of conditions but not depression and the third group; the control group was merely placed on a waiting list.
The groups that were given acupuncture had differing results. The group given the right treatment experienced satisfactory improvement in their emotional and physiological conditions while the second group had minimal beneficial effects to show. The third group never had a change of condition; they were still suffering from mild depression.
One specific company, the Cochrane Group, which works on compiling empirical evidence of the effects of acupuncture, studied the researches done regarding the potency of acupuncture in treating depression and have concluded their studies by saying that the successful results proved inadequate for their criteria for success and rejected the success claims for acupuncture in treating depression. It is interesting to note that some studies done by this group are sponsored by certain transational pharmaceutical companies who view acupuncture as a potential rival treatment alternative for their products.
Whatever the case, it is hard to ignore testimonies and proofs, not merely anecdotal evidence from patients who have been completely treated of their depression with acupuncture and with a 2500+ successful track record, the onus of proof of the effectiveness of their products lies with the pharmaceutical companies rather than with acupuncture.