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. 2020 Dec 4:16:2961-2973.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S284857. eCollection 2020.

Long-Term Beneficial Effects of Acupuncture with Reduced Risk of Depression Development Following Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Chung-Chih Liao  1 , Cheng-Li Lin  2   3 , Ke-Ru Liao  4 , Jung-Miao Li  1   5
Affiliations

Long-Term Beneficial Effects of Acupuncture with Reduced Risk of Depression Development Following Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Chung-Chih Liao et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Background: Existing evidence has shown that patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) have a higher risk of developing depression than the normal population. Clinically, acupuncture has been widely used to alleviate pain in TN. However, few studies have explored the use of acupuncture to prevent depression in TN. Therefore, this study aimed to apply national real-world data to investigate the long-term effect of acupuncture on the risk of depression in patients with TN.

Methods: We recruited participants with newly diagnosed TN from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2010, and categorized them into either the acupuncture cohort or non-acupuncture cohort using the 1:1 propensity score-matched method. All patients in the two cohorts were followed up until the end of 2013. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to compare the incidence of depression between the two cohorts.

Results: In total, 776 patients with newly diagnosed TN in each cohort with similar baseline characteristics were enrolled in the study. The acupuncture cohort had a reduced risk of depression compared to the non-acupuncture cohort (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.31-0.70). Kaplan-Meier analysis also revealed that the cumulative incidence of depression was significantly lower in the acupuncture cohort during the 13-year follow-up period (Log rank test, p < 0.001). In particular, the beneficial effect of acupuncture was a decrease in the risk of depression among TN patients aged 50-69 years who had also used carbamazepine.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that acupuncture is associated with a reduction in the risk of depression during long-term follow-up in patients with TN. The results provide new insights for clinical practitioners as well as for health resource allocation.

Keywords: National Health Insurance Research Database; acupuncture; depression; real-world data; trigeminal neuralgia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart summarizing the study subject enrolment procedure. LHID 2000: Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cumulative incidence of depression between the acupuncture cohort and the non-acupuncture cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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