Frontiers in Public Health (Jul 2022)

Reliability of Evidence to Guide Decision-Making in the Use of Acupuncture for Postpartum Depression

  • Xiuwu Hu,
  • Qian Fan,
  • Li Ma,
  • Rui Jin,
  • Rui Gong,
  • Xiaoying Zhao,
  • Fenfen Qiu,
  • Liang Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.942595
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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BackgroundThere is conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD). This study aimed to assess previous systematic reviews/meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) on the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat PPD.MethodSRs/MAs regarding the use of acupuncture for PPD were identified from the establishment of digital databases to November 2021. The Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) was applied to evaluate the methodological quality of included SRs/MAs. The Grades of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was utilized to evaluate the evidence quality for outcomes of interest.ResultsSix studies that conducted quantitative syntheses were included. According to AMSTAR-2, the methodological quality of these SRs/MAs was critically low owing to limitations of items 2, 4, and 7. According to GRADE, no study included high-quality evidence and most studies included low-quality evidence.ConclusionsAcupuncture m be beneficial for PPD, however, due to limitations of current evidence and inconsistent findings, further studies are needed to provide stronger evidence to draw definitive conclusions.

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