94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Neuroimaging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1536660
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Brain Functional Network Reconfiguration in PsychosisView all 4 articles
Neuroimaging Studies of Acupuncture for Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review of Published Papers from 2014-2024
Provisionally accepted- 1College of Acupuncture and Tuina, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 2Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Several neuroimaging studies have confirmed that acupuncture can elicit alterations in brain networks and regions associated with depressive disorder (DD). This review provides an overview of the methodologies and results of neuroimaging investigations into the efficacy of acupuncture in treating DD, with the intention of guiding future research objectives.Methods: Neuroimaging studies of acupuncture for DD being published between February 2, 2014 and February 2, 2024, were gathered from PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chongqing VIP Database, WanFang Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed utilizing the Risk of Bias 2.0 and Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions tools. Following a qualitative analysis of the studies, relevant information regarding acupuncture interventions and brain imaging data was extracted.Results: A total of 26 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies featured a combined sample size of 1138 participants. All studies employed magnetic resonance imaging. Our findings indicate that acupuncture can affect neural activity in the cingulate gyrus, precuneus, insula, prefrontal lobe, etc. The neuroimaging results of most DD patients were correlated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Depressive Disorder, Neuroimaging, brain network, Systematic review
Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Ren, Ouyang, Li, Peng and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sha Yang, College of Acupuncture and Tuina, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 610075, Sichuan Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.