Effects of an integrative treatment, therapeutic acupuncture and conventional treatment in alleviating psychological distress in primary care patients - a pragmatic randomized controlled trial

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Bertil Marklund¹  Charles Taft²  Tina Arvidsdotter³ 

[1] Department of Primary Health Care, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden;Research and Development Center Fyrbodal, Vänersborg, Sweden;Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden;Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden;Research and Development Center Fyrbodal, Vänersborg, Sweden;

关键词: Acupuncture;    Anxiety;    Depression;    Holistic;    Integrative treatment;    Primary care;    Psychological distress;    Salutogenesis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-13-308

 received in 2013-05-14, accepted in 2013-11-01,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo evaluate and compare effects of an integrative treatment (IT), therapeutic acupuncture (TA), and conventional treatment (CT) in alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression in psychologically distressed primary care patients.MethodsAn open, pragmatic randomized controlled trial comparing the three treatment regimens at four and eight weeks after treatment. The study sample consisted of 120 adults (40 per treatment arm) aged 20 to 55 years referred from four different primary health care centres in western Sweden for psychological distress. Psychological distress was evaluated at baseline, and after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD). Treatment sessions lasted about 60 minutes in IT and 45 minutes in TA.ResultsNo baseline differences were found between groups on HAD depression or anxiety. HAD anxiety and depression decreased significantly more in the IT and TA groups than in the CT group both after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment, but not between IT and TA. Improvements in the TA and IT groups were large and clinically significant, whereas CT effects were small and clinically non-significant.ConclusionsBoth IT and TA appear to be beneficial in reducing anxiety and depression in primary care patients referred for psychological distress, whereas CT does not. These results need to be confirmed in larger, longer-term studies addressing potentially confounding design issues in the present study.Trial registrationISRCTN trial number NCT01631500.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Arvidsdotter et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013