The Effectiveness of Live Bee Sting Acupuncture on Depression

Abstract

People with depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, meaningless, guilty, irritable, ashamed and restless. They may lose interest in activities that were once pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems related to concentrating, remembering details or making decisions, and may contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, aches, pains, digestive problems or reduced energy may also be present. Depression will be the second leading cause of disease burden worldwide 2020. Despite these considerable costs, current pharmacological and psychological interventions have limited acceptability and effectiveness, up to 60% of depressed persons do not adequately respond to pharmacological antidepressant treatment and 30% do not adhere to medication. The exact origins of apitherapy are difficult to pinpoint and can be traced back to ancient Egypt, Greece and has been practiced in China for 3-5000 years. Use of bee products in human treatments traced back thousands of years and healing properties are included in many religious texts including the Veda, Bible and Quran. Now it is being practical all over the world. In the USA the history of apitherapy goes back about 100 years. Bees are very important instruments in the health world, such as treating depression, neurological disease, muscle cramps, skin tumors, and nerve pain. Property to cure the disease obtained from some natural products such as; honey bee, royal jelly and sting/bee venom. Method of using bee products as one form of treatment eventually led to apitherapy technique. This therapy has been known since ancient Egyptian times, about 1870 BC. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of live bee sting acupuncture on first episode depression. Setting: the study was carried out at Minofya University Hospital, psychiatric outpatient clinic. Subjects: A total of 37 young adult volunteers who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria during the period from December 2013 to December 2014. Tools: Two tools were utilized by the researchers for data collection. I- structure interview demographic data: structure interview schedule. II- Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The results: The results revealed that volunteers had moderate and severe depression (59.5, 40.5) respectively before live bee sting acupuncture. The volunteers had no and mild depression (59.5, 40.5) respectively after 6 months of live bee sting acupuncture and absolutely no depression after 12 months.