Acupuncture Helps Perimenopausal Depression

Perimenopausal depression is a real thing experienced by a lot of people. It’s not talked about much and people experiencing it can feel a bit crazy or alone in the experience. Perimenopause is considered a “window” of vulnerability for developing depression and rates of perimenopausal depression range from 20-40% (Zhao et al, 2021). Clearly, if you are experiencing this you are not alone.

First, what is perimenopause? In short, it is a time of hormonal craziness. It can start anywhere from 5 to 10 years before you officially enter menopause (i.e., 12 months of no period) when things start to get a bit wacky hormonally. Progesterone is the usually the first hormone to become dysregulated which leaves estrogen without a balance and can result in a variety of symptoms such as:

• Long cycles

• Missed cycles

• Short cycles

• Very heavy cycles

• Frequent cycles

• PMS on steroids

• Acne

• Night sweats/hot flashes

• Sleep disturbances

• Vaginal dryness

• Brain fog and memory issues

• Anxiety and/or depression

• And more!

Some people sail through with no to mild symptoms and some are hit like a ton of bricks. There are many reasons for this that I won’t get into today, stay tuned for future blog posts. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are amazing at helping you regain hormonal balance to ameliorate all of these symptoms but today I want to share about a relatively recent meta-analysis that looked at acupuncture for perimenopausal depression specifically.

Zhao and colleagues did a systematic review and meta-analysis (i.e. looked at all the randomized control trials in the literature) of acupuncture as a treatment modality to address perimenopausal depression. This is what they found, in a nutshell.

• Acupuncture appears to have better effects than sham acupuncture (i.e. not inserting a needles or shallowly inserting a needle in a place where this is not an acupuncture point) in reducing perimenopausal depression.

• Acupuncture alone or combined with standard care (e.g., antidepressant or antidepressant with hormone replacement therapy) is superior to standard care alone in improving perimenopausal depression.

• Acupuncture showed better than or equivalent effects to antidepressants in decreasing Hamilton Depression Scale global scores at 2-, 4-, and 12-week follow-ups, suggesting that acupuncture may have intermediate- and long-term therapeutic effects on perimenopausal depression and its short-term effect was superior to antidepressants.

Wow! Those are pretty great results! Many of my patients do not want to go on antidepressants or use hormone replacement therapy for a variety of reasons (e.g. side effects, lack of efficacy, they don’t like taking medication) so acupuncture is a wonderful alternative that can also address all those other symptoms at the same time.

As a last note, let’s talk about what perimenopausal depression looks like as it may not look like the stereotypical depiction of depression. Sure, it can look like pervasive sadness or hopelessness, a lack of joy, low motivation, low energy. It can also look like anger, having a very quick wick, irritability and low threshold for frustration. And anxiety frequently goes along with depression like a conjoined twin.

If this sounds like you, please know that you are not alone. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are so helpful for this and can get you back to feeling like yourself again (or even better!). Schedule a free consultation to get started.

Zhao, F. Y., Fu, Q. Q., Kennedy, G. A., Conduit, R., Zhang, W. J., & Zheng, Z. (2021). Acupuncture as an Independent or Adjuvant Management to Standard Care for Perimenopausal Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 666988. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.666988