Integrative treatment (IT) and therapeutic acupuncture (TA) result in more long term benefit than conventional treatment (CT) for alleviating psychological distress in primary care patients. One hundred and twenty patients who had participated in an open, pragmatic randomised controlled trial were followed up six months after eight-weeks of either IT and TA or CT by a team of Swedish investigators. TA involved weekly treatment for eight consecutive weeks, with between two and 12 needles were inserted until a deqi sensation was elicited. IT combined TA with a person-centred dialogue designed to help patients mobilise their potential for coping with their condition. All three groups showed significant improvement from baseline, but improvements were significantly greater in IT and TA than in the CT group. At six months the IT and TA groups showed significantly better values than CT on all measured variables relating to symptoms of anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life (HRQL). IT and TA did not differ on any outcome variable. Effect sizes were large in IT and TA for all variables and small or moderate in CT. Improvements in all variables seen after eight-weeks of IT and TA remained stable at six-month follow-up.

Six-month effects of integrative treatment, therapeutic acupuncture and conventional treatment in alleviating psychological distress in primary care patients–follow up from an open, pragmatic randomized controlled trial. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Jun 30;14:210

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24980440