Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Psychotherapie
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Acupuncture for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Systematic Review

Rui Ma, Shujun Xu, Xiuyun Wen, Qian Wu, Yanan Wu, Yefei Huang and Wenbin Fu

Objective: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the most common anxiety disorder in primary care. The clinical studies on anxiety disorders have been commonly conducted; however the efficacy of acupuncture in treating GAD is uncertain. We therefore performed a systematic review to evaluate the evidence regarding acupuncture for GAD.

Data sources: CBM, CAJ, CSJD, CNKI, Wan Fang, EMBASE, Pubmed/MEDLINE, OVID EBM Reviewers, Cochrane Library, Up-to-date, ACP journal club were searched through July 2013. Search terms included Condition = (Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Generalized Anxiety or GAD) And Intervention = (acupuncture* or acupressure or acupoint* or electro acupuncture* or electro-acupuncture*).

Study selection: Included in this study were randomized controlled trials of participants have GAD diagnosed by operational criteria.

Data extraction: Two review authors extracted data from each study independently. Information relating to study population, sample size, interventions, comparators, potential biases in the conduct of the trial, outcomes including adverse events, follow-up and methods of statistical analysis were abstracted from the original reports.

Data synthesis: 3 RCTs (443 patients) were included. Overall the risk of bias in included studies was high. The included trials were extremely heterogeneous regarding acupuncture and control interventions. Therefore, pooling of data was not performed. We found equal benefits of acupuncture and medicationsfor HAMA or SAS in 2 trials. In another trail no difference was found in the baseline analysis with HAMA and SAS measurement between groups at the2nd, 4thweek time-point. Adverse events associated with acupuncture are rarely reported.

Conclusion: Even though some methodological shortcomings influence the quality of the included studies, this review still suggests that acupuncture was an effective alternative therapy for generalized anxiety is safe.