Clinical observation on head point-through-point electroacupuncture for treatment of poststroke depression

Objective To observe clinical therapeutic effect of head point-through-point electroacupuncture(EA)on poststroke depression(PSD)and to study the mechanism.Methods One hundred and eight cases of PSD were randomly divided into a point-through-point EA group(n=38),a non point-through-point group(n=36)and a western medicine group(n=34).After treatment of 28 days,their therapeutic effects,scores of HAMD depression scale and SDS self-rating scale,and plasma 5-HT contents were compared before and after treatment among the 3 groups.Results The effective rate of 86.84% in the point-through-point EA group was better than 63.89% in the non point-through-point group and 67.65% in the western medicine group(P0.05 or P0.01).Plasma 5-HT content in the point-through-point EA group increased significantly,with a very significant difference as compared with that of the non point-through-point group(P0.01).Conclusion Head point-through-point therapy can obviously increase plasma 5-HT content of the patient with PSD,so as to cure poststroke depression,with a better thera-peutic effect than other two groups.