Acupuncture and Escitalopram for Treating Major Depression Clinical Study

Starting soon · Not applicable · Has a placebo group

Conditions studied: Depressive Disorder, Major

In brief

We will be able to investigate in a sample of patients free of antidepressants whether acupuncture is more effective than placebo.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05901571

Run by

Shanghai 7th People's Hospital

People needed

216

Starts

2026-11-01

Expected to finish

2030-02-01

Last updated by the study team

2026-03-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 75. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Between 18 and 75 years of age with no gender-based restriction.
• Fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of DSM-5 for major depressive disorder.
• A Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS-17) score ≥ 17
• Ability to read and understand Mandarin Chinese, at least nine years of education, and willingness to adhere to the study protocol.
• The absence of acupuncture treatment within at least 1 year.
• Willingness to participate in the trial and provide written informed consent for the clinical trial.

You may not qualify if…

• Lifetime or current neuropsychiatric conditions, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, substance dependence or abuse, dementia, brain injury, epilepsy and so forth.
• High suicide risk or presenting with suicidal ideation (a score of more than 2 points on the Suicide question of the HDRS-17) at the time of entry.
• Medicated with antidepressant at the start of the trial or history of treatment failure to escitalopram.
• Pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Subjects who have acute inflammation at the planned acupuncture site on the body or any other contraindication to acupuncture.
• Candidates afraid of needles in general and reluctant to receive acupuncture in particular
• Known or suspected clinically unstable systemic medical disorder (including cancer, organ failure, or severe diseases of the cardiovascular, severe hepatic or renal insufficiency).
• Previous participation in other acupuncture trials.

Where it is running

• Jianhua Chen — Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
• Zhenxiang Han — Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
• Zouqing Huang — Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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