Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression

This pioneering book unites both Western and Traditional Chinese medicine to provide a comprehensive overview of depression from both clinical perspectives, and to present a step-by-step methodology for the evaluation and acupuncture treatment of this condition, using an experimentally tested protocol. In addition, it addresses fundamental issues in acupuncture research and offers guidelines for the design of acupuncture treatment studies

Features
* Provides guidelines for developing appropriate treatment principles, and selecting and combining the correct acupuncture points
Offers clinical guidelines for treating people with depression, including dealing with acute symptoms, assessing the risk of suicide, and when to make a prompt referral
Presents case histories, both successfully and unsuccessfully treated
Reviews definitions of depression in western psychiatry and psychology, including epidemiology, etiology, differential diagnosis and conventional treatments
Describes the causes and progression of depressive symptoms from a Chinese perspective
Outlines each specific pattern of imbalance encountered in depression, how to differentiate signs and symptoms according to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Gives a comprehensive overview of research issues in acupuncture, outlining advantages and disadvantages of different treatment study design
The design and result of the authors' pilot study, funded by the NIH, are given to illustrate a model for acupuncture treatment research.

Background and context.
Depression defined: symptoms, epidemiology, etiology and treatment.
Chinese medicine theory.
The etiology of depression according to traditional Chinese medicine.
The application of traditional Chinese medicine in the diagnosis and treatment of depression.
Case histories of individuals who responded to treatment.
Research considerations.
Issues in implementation.
Case histories of individuals who did not respond fully to treatment.