JAM掲載論文検索

Abstract

[Aim] The effectiveness of acupuncture in treating major depressive disorder (MDD) has been reported by randomized controlled trials (RCT) and systematic reviews/meta analyses. However, no studies have focused on describing the specific acupoints used. In this systematic review, we aimed to examine the types of acupoints and frequency of their use in various interventions, and tendency of differences in effects depending on the acupoints used in RCTs involving acupuncture for treating MDD.
[Data sources] A literature search of the PubMed database was performed. Study selection: RCTs involving acupuncture for treating MDD indexed until December 31, 2020, were selected. Data extraction: The acupoints described in the methods were extracted and counted for each treatment method.
[Main results] Acupoints were described in 29 RCTs. A total of 61 acupoints were used in 29 RCTs. The top 10 acupoints used were GV20 25 (86%), EX-HN3 Yin Tang 21 (72%), PC6 16 (55%), HT7 15 (52%), LR3, SP6 14 (48%), LI4 9 (32%), ST36 7 (25%), EX-HN1 Si Shen Cong, and EX-HN54 An Mian 6 (21%). Manual acupuncture was performed in acupoints throughout the whole body, and electroacupuncture was concentrated toward the acupoints of the head. There was no positive and negative trend in the results due to the difference in the acupoints used. The variations in acupoints used were 19 fixed and 4 semi-fixed in China, and 5 fixed and 2 semi-fixed in other countries/areas. There were significant differences between China and other countries/areas in the proportion of variations in the acupoints used (P = 0.01). There were no significant differences the mean total number of acupoints between 6.9 (SD 2.7) for China and 7.3 (SD 5.0) for other countries. The mean total number of treatments and the mean frequency of treatment were significantly higher in China than other countries (P=0.01).
[Conclusions] This review clarified the acupoint types, frequencies, and differences in effects of their use in RCTs involving acupuncture for MDD. The choice of acupoints may vary depending on the treatment. Moreover, there was no clear trend of differences in effects depending on the acupoints used. These results could be used as a basis for developing specific intervention methods in clinical trials for acupuncture and for selecting clinical acupoints.