资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Outcomes of interest included depressive symptoms, response to treatment, remission, relapse, health-related quality of life, and adverse events. Study details were documented in detailed evidence tables and summarized in a narrative synthesis. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (or GRADE) approach.

In total, 18 studies met inclusion criteria. Eleven of these studies focused on acupuncture as a monotherapy, and seven examined its use as an adjunctive therapy to antidepressants or treatment as usual. We found that monotherapy acupuncture may be superior to waitlist, but the methodological quality of the studies was generally poor, with limited blinding, high attrition, and limited use of intention-to-treat analysis. The limited evidence suggests a higher rate of responders with adjunctive acupuncture plus antidepressants than with antidepressants alone, but the studies were of poor quality. Findings for effect estimates of acupuncture compared with other comparators are inconclusive. Reported adverse events were typically mild in nature, but the assessment lacked rigor and studies were not designed to detect rare events.