Depression and anxiety are commonly encountered by women during the antenatal and postnatal periods. The conditions have a significant impact on the woman and her unborn infant. Pregnant women have been noted to have a preference for non-pharmacological treatment options, and use complementary medicines and therapies to manage the symptoms. A study published recently in the Journal of Affective Disorders assessed the effectiveness and safety of these interventions on depression and anxiety during pregnancy. Investigators searched CENTRAL, EMBASE and PubMed databases for randomized controlled trials that compared complementary therapies and medicines to a control, for pregnant women with depression or anxiety. The primary outcome measure was antenatal depression or anxiety.

Twenty randomized controlled trials involving 1092 women were included in the review. The analysis revealed some evidence of reduced antenatal depression from three modalities. Acupuncture reduced the number of women diagnosed with antenatal depression (RR 1.68, 95% CI 1.06-2.66, 1 trial). Massage was found to decrease the severity of antenatal depression in one trial of 149 women (SMD -0.73, 95%CI -1.07--0.39). A trial of bright light therapy also revealed reduced antenatal depression (RR 4.80, 95% CI -8.39--1.21, 27 women).

It was thus concluded that acupuncture, bright light therapy, and massage may reduce antenatal depression.