title: Acupuncture Meridian Energies in Patients Who Are Mentally Disturbed.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Acupuncture medicine states that different pathologies exhibit different patterns of excitation in the 24 main acupuncture meridians. Previous exploratory work has shown that groups of patients with the same pathology exhibit such characteristic patterns when limited numbers of acupuncture points are measured with the AcuGraph meridian energy measuring device. This study reports patterns of meridian energies observed in an exploratory assessment of different classes of patient with mental disturbance.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a three-group cross-sectional design. Participants were patients who had been diagnosed by their GP with anxiety (n = 21) and depression (n = 26) and who were entering a treatment program, along with age- and sex-matched controls (n = 44). Patients diagnosed with mild mental disturbance who were aged 20-50 years were eligible to take part. Patients with any cut, wart, or mole on their fingertips or with excess sweating, which would interfere with conductance measurements, were excluded. The assessment comprised conductance values at Jing-Well acupuncture points by AcuGraph4 on entry into the treatment program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with anxiety had higher meridian energy levels (81.84 ± 38.63) and significant Upper-Lower imbalances (p < 0.05) favoring the upper meridians. Patients with depression had lower energy levels and lower standard deviations (53.36 ± 33.48) as a group. Controls exhibited intermediate energy levels but recorded the lowest scoring variances (62.61 ± 27.05) of the three groups. Kidney meridians had the lowest energy for both of the pathology groups. For the group suffering with anxiety, bladder meridians were also low.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher variances in AcuGraph4 measurements were observed in patients with either anxiety or depression compared with controls whose variances were the lowest. These results are in accordance with previous observations of greater variance in conductance values in pathology groups. With regard to meridian energies, the lowest were in those with depression, while those with anxiety were the highest. Controls exhibited intermediate energy levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Yoga and Physical Science, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA) , Bangalore, India .
authors.forename: Kuntal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Department of Yoga and Physical Science, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA) , Bangalore, India .
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hankey
authors.affiliation: Department of Yoga and Physical Science, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA) , Bangalore, India .
authors.forename: Thaiyar M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D016740:Meridians; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: anxiety; depression; kidney and bladder meridian; meridian energy