Electro-Acupuncture vs. Regular Acupuncture for Insomnia with Major Depressive Disorder

Chinese researchers recently conducted a study comparing electroacupuncture to "regular" acupuncture as a treatment for insomnia associated with depression.  Conducted in a psychiatric outpatient clinic researchers recruited 78 patients who were diagnosed via DSM-IV with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Insomnia is a common problem with MDD and acupuncture is regularly used to treat such conditions.  This study is unique and useful (from an acupuncturists perspective) because of it's comparison between electro-acupuncture and regular "minimal" or "body" acupuncture (along with a control group).  Many practitioner believe that strong stimulation leads to improved results even when many systems do not use these stronger techniques and still get results.

Patients were treated 3 times per week for 3 weeks and evaluated with various measures such as the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Piitsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).  Researchers found that acupuncture was very helpful for insomnia and, more interestingly, that there was no clinical difference between the standard acupuncture and electro-acupuncture.