Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression: A Manual for Practice and Research

This pioneering book unites both Western and Traditional Chinese medicine to provide a comprehensive overview of depression from both clinical perspectives. It presents a step-by-step methodology for the evaluation treatment of this condition with acupuncture, using an experimentally tested protocol. In addition, it addresses fundamental issues in acupuncture research and offers guidelines for the design of acupuncture treatment studies.Provides guidelines for developing appropriate treatment principles, and selecting and combining the correct acupuncture pointsOffers clinical guidelines for treating people with depression, including dealing with acute symptoms, assessing the risk of suicide, and when to make a prompt referralPresents case histories, both successfully and unsuccessfully treatedReviews definitions of depression in western psychiatry and psychology, including epidemiology, etiology, differential diagnosis and conventional treatmentsDescribes the causes and progression of depressive symptoms from a Chinese perspectiveOutlines each specific pattern of imbalance encountered in depression, how to differentiate signs and symptoms according to Traditional Chinese MedicineGives a comprehensive overview of research issues in acupuncture, outlining advantages and disadvantages of different treatment study designThe design and result of the authors' pilot study, funded by the NIH, are given to illustrate a model for acupuncture treatment research.