The Effects of Auriculotherapy on Depression Among Elderly People: A Double-Blind Randomised Clinical Trial

Background: Given the high prevalence of depression in older adulthood, appropriate interventions are essential to help elderly people with depression. This study aimed at assessing the effects of auriculotherapy on depression among elderly people.Methods: This double-blind randomised clinical trial was conducted in 2021. Fifty-two elderly people were conveniently selected and randomly allocated to a sham group (n=26) and an intervention group (n=26) through block randomisation. The intervention group provided four-week auriculotherapy on the Shen-Men, zero, heart, antidepressant, and master cerebral points using Vaccaria seeds fixed with adhesive tape. In the sham group, adhesive tapes were attached to the points with neither seeds nor compression. The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale was used to assess depression before, immediately after, and four-weeks after the intervention (T1–T3). The main statistical methods were the repeated measures analysis of variance and the analysis of covariance.Results: Groups significantly differed in respecting participants’ gender, education, and employment (p<0.05). After adjusting the confounding effects, time-group interaction significantly affected the mean depression score (p<0.0001). Moreover, the mean depression score in the intervention group was significantly less than the sham group at T2 and T3 (p<0.0001). Within-group analysis showed significant differences in the intervention group's depression scores at T1 from T2 and T3 (p<0.05). In contrast, the mean depression score in the sham group at T2 was significantly less than T1 (p=0.003) and significantly greater than T3 (p=0.049).Conclusions: Auriculotherapy alleviates depression among elderly people and can be used as a complementary therapy for elderly with depressed moods.