Effects of electroacupuncture on anxiety and depression in unmarried patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome: secondary analysis of a pilot randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) for the treatment of anxiety and depression in unmarried patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) by secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial. Methods: A prospective pilot randomised controlled trial of unmarried women with PCOS was conducted from November 2012 to March 2016. Participants were assigned to the acupuncture group (receiving EA for 16 weeks) or the control group (receiving sham acupuncture for 16 weeks), with 27 patients in each group. The pre-specified primary outcomes and all secondary outcomes, with the exception of serum levels of neurotransmitters including norepinephrine (NE), epinephrine (AD), serotonin (5-HT) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), will be reported separately. Additional outcome measures selected for this secondary analysis included anxiety and depression scale scores (Zung-SAS and Zung-SDS), 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) scale scores, PCOS Quality of Life (PCOSQOL) scale scores and Chinese Quality of Life (CHQOL) scale scores. Results: After the16-week intervention, an increase in serum NE and reduction in 5-HT were observed in the acupuncture group (P=0.028 and P=0.023, respectively). The serum level of GABA decreased in both groups after the interventions (both P<0.001). However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the levels of any neurotransmitters (p>0.05). After EA treatment, SAS and SDS scores were decreased in the acupuncture group (P=0.007 and P=0.027, respectively) and were lower than those of the control group (P=0.003 and P=0.004, respectively). The SF-36 domain scores for mental health, vitality, social functioning, general health and health transition, the total CHQOL scores, and the infertility problems and body hair domains of the PCOSQOL improved significantly after EA (P<0.05). Conclusion: EA appears to improve symptoms of anxiety/depression and quality of life in PCOS patients and may influence serum levels of NE and 5-HT. These findings should be interpreted with caution, given the secondary nature of the outcome measures reported herein. Trial registration number: NCT01812161; ChiCTR-TRC-12002529

Postoperative analgesia using dezocine alleviates depressive symptoms after colorectal cancer surgery: A randomized, controlled, double-blind trial

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that deficiency of monoamine neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine, in the central and peripheral nervous system is a major cause of depression [20,44]. The changes in the serum levels of monoamine neurotransmitters and their metabolites can be used as important biomarkers for diagnosis of depression [17,18]. In the current study, we explored the possible changes in the serum serotonin and norepinephrine concentrations when dezocine was intravenously administered during PCIA.…”

“…In particular, serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are firstline antidepressant drugs. Moreover, several previous studies have reported that increased serum concentrations of norepinephrine and serotonin were associated with improved depressive symptoms [17][18][19][20][21]. Furthermore, a recent study found that postoperative patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) using tramadol, which has serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitory effects, can significantly decrease the postoperative depression scores [22].…”

The Impact of Electroacupuncture Early Intervention on the Brain Lipidome in a Mouse Model of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

“…Previous studies have mainly focused on the analgesic effect of EA (Zhang et al, 2014). However, multiple studies found that EA not only has neuromodulatory effects (Liu Z. et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2018), but can also ameliorate the symptoms of several neuropsychiatric diseases, such as the cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and anxiety and depression in unmarried patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (Li et al, 2019;Tamtaji et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Zheng et al, 2021). Interestingly, a large number of studies reported that EA exerts neuroprotective effects by regulating the structure and function of the hippocampus and PFC (He et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2019;Marcus et al, 2020).…”

Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Depressive-Like Behaviors in Poststroke Rats via Activating the tPA/BDNF/TrkB Pathway

“…9,11 Electroacupuncture (EA) has been used to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, such as knee osteoarthritis, 12 stress urinary incontinence, 13 functional constipation, 14 and so on. Recently, EA has been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on neuropsychiatric disorders, [15][16][17][18] including PSD. 19 Animal studies showed that hippocampal sonic hedgehogsignaling pathway, 20 Keap1/Nrf2 antioxidant signaling pathway, 21 and endocannabinoid signaling pathway 22 may be involved in the protective mechanism of EA on PSD.…”