How Acupuncture Can Help Anxiety

What Is Anxiety?

Most of us have experienced anxiety at some point in our lives. Often, anxiety can be a normal and healthy emotion that alerts us to stressful, dangerous, or unfamiliar situations. Obviously this emotion can become extremely problematic when anxiety is experienced regularly and at much higher levels than normal. If you’ve suffered with anxiety, then you know how debilitating it can feel and how important is becomes to receive good quality treatment options.

Some Quick Stats on Anxiety

Anxiety becomes a ‘disorder’ when the signs and symptoms persist for about 6 months or longer. In 2013, it was estimated that 3 million Canadians (11.6%) aged 18 years and older reported having a mood and/or anxiety disorder. Since the pandemic, those numbers have doubled, if not tripled to about 30% globally.

Research on Acupuncture & Anxiety

how the studies were conducted

In a recent systematic review, over 20 randomized control trials looking at the efficacy of acupuncture on generalized anxiety disorder were reviewed.

For those who are unfamiliar with how experiments are conducted, a randomized control trial is an experiment in which there are two groups of treatment. Participants are randomly assigned to receive either the experimental treatment (in this case – acupuncture), or the control treatment (usually placebo, but sometimes other treatment options i.e. antidepressants).

All studies that were reviewed measured anxiety symptoms before and after acupuncture intervention. Sixteen of these studies also chose antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications as a control group.

what the studies found

Results showed that acupuncture had a better effect on reducing symptoms of anxiety compared to control conditions at 6 weeks (placebo, other traditional Chinese medicine treatments, or conventional medications).

It was found that acupuncture completed over a 6-week period was more effective at relieving symptoms of anxiety, compared to acupuncture completed for greater than 6 weeks. This result suggests that acupuncture works efficiently and quickly, providing relief from anxiety as early as 6 weeks. The studies also found that anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications took greater than 6 weeks for improvements to be seen. Researchers concluded that acupuncture can therefore be an excellent intervention in the early stages of treatment for anxiety and can be used while waiting for anxiety medications to kick in!

Side effects were also super rare. There were significantly fewer side effects in the acupuncture treatment group compared to the control groups. The most common side effects reported included needle pain, bruising, and faintness during acupuncture treatments. The researchers concluded that acupuncture showed extremely good tolerance and safety.

Treatment Options for Anxiety

So, if you’re dealing with anxiety, the research is pretty robust! Acupuncture can certainly alleviate symptoms of anxiety with very little side effects, and improvements are seen quickly!

Through all the research we’ve seen so far, acupuncture consistently proves to be a very effective therapy to balance our emotions and calm down our sense of fear, uneasiness, and worry. Also, if you’re nervous about trying acupuncture, treatments do not always have to involve needles. Using a number of different tools, such as Cupping, Gua Sha, Tuina Massage, and acupressure, can help relieve the burdening symptoms of stress, anxiety and fear. We all deserve to feel a sense of inner peace and calm in our lives, luckily acupuncture seems to help you get there!

If You Want To Learn More

If you would like to learn more about how acupuncture can help support anxiety and mental health in general, reach out to the clinic or book your complimentary consult here.