Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression

Description

By Rosa Schnyer & John Allen
Hardcover book
ISBN 9780443071317
240 pages, 7.50 x 9.50″

This pioneering book unites both Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine to provide a comprehensive overview of depression from both clinical perspectives, and to present a step-by-step methodology for the evaluation and acupuncture treatment of this condition, using an experimentally tested protocol. In addition, it addresses fundamental issues in acupuncture research and offers guidelines for the design of acupuncture treatment studies.

Features:

• Gives guidelines on how to develop appropriate treatment principles, and how to select and combine the correct acupuncture points
• Offers clinical guidelines for treating people with depression, including dealing with acute symptoms, assessing the risk of suicide, and when to make a prompt referral.
• Presents case histories, both successfully and unsuccessfully treated
• Reviews definitions of depression in Western psychiatry and psychology, including epidemiology, etiology, differential diagnosis and conventional treatments
• Describes the causes and progression of depressive symptoms from a Chinese perspective
• Outlines each specific pattern of imbalance encountered in depression, how to differentiate signs and symptoms according to Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Gives a comprehensive overview of research issues in acupuncture, outlining advantages and disadvantages of different treatment study design
• The design and result of the authors’ pilot study, funded by the NIH, are given to illustrate a model for acupuncture treatment research

About the Authors:

Rosa N Schnyer DiplAc, Senior Research Associate, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.

John J B Allen PhD, Associate Professor, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Praise for Acupuncture in the Treatment of Depression

“Clinicians from a wide variety of backgrounds will find this book useful. Acupuncturists will find the clinical details add new dimensions to their practice. Western psychologists and medical practitioners will find useful insights and new therapeutic options that expand what may be possible for depressed patients. Clinical researchers will find one of the most comprehensively developed research strategies for investigating the efficacy of acupuncture. This book will prove to be a powerful tool for many health care providers.”

-Stephen Birch PhD LicAc (USA), Stichting (Foundation) for the Study of Traditional East Asian Medicine, Amsterdam, Holland

“Schnyer and Allen contribute a breakthrough design for acupuncture research in which the patient and the treatment are viewed as whole systems. More generally, by adapting real-world clinical practice of acupuncture to a research-manual format, they have created a useful and effective approach for the rigorous testing of any therapy. – conventional, alternative, or complementary – that provides highly individualized care.”

-Richard Hammerschlag PhD., Research Director, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, Oregon, USA