Does acupuncture influence the cardiac autonomic nervous system in patients with minor depression or anxiety disorders?

We undertook this study to evaluate the effects of needle acupuncture on cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) function in patients with minor depression or anxiety disorder. Patients (n=36) were randomly distributed into a verum acupuncture (VA) group or a placebo (PL) group Both groups underwent standardized measurements of the 5-minute resting heart rate variability (HRV), which were performed before the first and after the 9th acupuncture session of an acupuncture series, and also three times during the third acupuncture sessionCompared to PL the VA group showed a significant decrease of the mean resting heart rate both. The latter effects resulted in an overall significant decrease of the mean LF/HF ratio in VA compared to PL treated patients.