Anxiety and depression are two of the most common mood disorders affecting people in the world. Although there is limited research on the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for treating anxiety and depression, clinical trials have reported a therapeutic effect comparable to medication, with no side effects. Much of the perceived benefit, however, may be due to the placebo effect, as TCM therapies seem to work for some people but not others.

TCM practitioners believe that physical health issues are connected to a person’s emotional state (and vice versa). Practitioners of TCM view emotions as an integrated aspect of organ functions, and sometimes the root cause of disease. TCM classifies emotions into seven categories, with each emotion corresponding to a particular organ. For example, the lungs are commonly linked to grief and the ability to let go. The seven emotions are anger, joy, fear, worry, grief, fright, and sadness.

One TCM theory on anxiety is that a person can have excessive energy, also referred to as heat or energy (qi), in the head. Symptoms of anxiety akin to this idea include insomnia, racing thoughts, and excessive worry. In such a case, the treatment would consist of inserting needles into various points on the body, such as the fingers, hands, wrists, ankles, and feet, in an effort to redistribute the patient’s energy, in order to improve sleep and reduce worry.

Depression, on the other hand, can be described as stagnant energy within the body. This stagnation can create imbalances that lead to symptoms of depression, such as an inability to focus, melancholy, anger, fatigue, and a lack of inspiration. Herbs together with acupuncture address the issue by  enabling the energy to move more efficiently, balancing the organ systems and creating homeostasis. The idea is that creating balanced energy better equips a person to manage stress and steady emotions, and enables a more peaceful feeling.