Acupuncture + Herbs More Effective Than Leading SSRI

Anxiety and depression are, unfortunately, more common today than ever before.

Our busy lifestyles, stressful jobs, hectic personal schedules and the stressors of every day life can lead many feeling a sense of sadness, worry, or inability to focus leading them to head to a physician. In many situations, SSRIs are prescribed.

SSRI's (also known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) work by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a class of neurotransmitters that carry signals between brain cells, so this form of medication blocks the reabsorption of serotonin in the brain, thus making more available.

Yet perhaps unsurprisingly, the most recent study out of China via HealthCMi reveals that when used in conjunction with herbs, acupuncture is more effective than paroxetine, also known as Paxil.

In the study led by Ganzhou City Third People’s Hospital in Jiangxi, 80 patients who had a clinical diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder were assigned to either receive the prescription paroxetine, or acupuncture and herbs.

The study used the HAM-A (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale), the SAS (Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale), and the treatment total effective rate to analyze the results.

While both groups experienced overall improvement, they rates of improvement were significantly higher in the group that experienced acupuncture and herbs, which produced a total effective rate of 97.5% versus the paroxetine group which had 80%.