Objective: Post-stroke depression (PSD) is common and has a negative impact on recovery.\nAlthough many stroke patients in Taiwan have used acupuncture as a supplementary treatment for\nreducing stroke comorbidities, little research has been done on the use of acupuncture to prevent\nPSD. Accordingly, our goal is to investigate whether using acupuncture after a stroke can reduce\nthe risk of PSD. Method: This population-based cohort study examined medical claims data from a\nrandom sample of 1 million insured people registered in Taiwan. Newly diagnosed stroke patients\nin the period 2000ââ?¬â??2005 were recruited in our study. All patients were followed through to the end\nof 2007 to determine whether they had developed symptoms of depression. A Cox proportional\nhazard model was used to estimate the relative risk of depression in patients after being diagnosed\nas having had a stroke, with a focus on the differences in those with and without acupuncture\ntreatment. Results: A total of 8487 newly-diagnosed stroke patients were included in our study; of\nthese, 1036 patients received acupuncture more than five times following their stroke, 1053 patients\nreceived acupuncture 1ââ?¬â??5 times following their stroke and 6398 did not receive acupuncture. After we\ncontrolled for potential confounders (e.g., age, sex, insurance premium, residential area, type of stroke,\nlength of hospital stay, stroke severity index, rehabilitation and major illnessââ?¬â??related depression),\nwe found that acupuncture after stroke significantly reduced the risk of depression, with a hazard\nratio (HR) of 0.475 (95% CI, 0.389ââ?¬â??0.580) in frequent acupuncture users and 0.718 (95% CI, 0.612ââ?¬â??0.842)\nin infrequent acupuncture users, indicating that acupuncture may lower the risk of PSD by an\nestimated 52.5% in frequent users and 28.2% in infrequent users. Conclusions: After we controlled for\npotential confounders, it appears that using acupuncture after a stroke lowers the risk of depression.\nAdditional strictly-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to better understand the specific\nmechanisms relating acupuncture to health outcomes.
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