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Pilot Study on the Use of Acupuncture for Postpartum Depression

NCT01178008 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 20

Last updated 2013-01-16

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The proposed study is a randomized controlled trial to examine the efficacy and safety of active acupuncture versus placebo acupuncture for the treatment of postpartum depression. The investigators hypothesis is that active acupuncture would be superior to placebo acupuncture in the short-term treatment of postpartum depression.

Conditions

  • Post-partum Depression

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Active acupuncture

Active acupuncture regimen consists of electroacupuncture stimulation on cranial and body acupoints which are empirical for treating depression in term of traditional Chinese medicine theory. It is done by a registered Chinese medicine practitioner with at least 3 years experience of providing acupuncture treatment. An electric-stimulator is connected to these needles to give an electric-stimulation in a continuous wave The needles will be left for 30 min and then removed. Acupuncture treatment will consist of two sessions per week for 4 consecutive weeks.

PROCEDURE

Placebo acupuncture

Streitberger's non-invasive acupuncture needles will be applied to serve as placebo control at the same acupoints and the same stimulation modality, except that the needles only affixed on the skin with adhesive tapes instead of insertion. Since all the points used are beyond patients' vision as they lay on bed, they could not visualize the acupuncture procedure. The acupuncturist, setting, treatment frequency, and duration of the treatment course are the same as the active acupuncture group.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Kwong Wah Hospital

    collaborator OTHER

  • Hospital Authority, Hong Kong

    collaborator OTHER_GOV

  • The University of Hong Kong

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Ka-Fai CHUNG, MBBS · The University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2010-05-31
Primary Completion
2011-12-31
Completion
2012-06-30

Countries

  • Hong Kong

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01178008 on ClinicalTrials.gov