I have long been interested in alternatives to drugs for depression. Psychotherapy is an obvious choice but cost and availability are such a barrier for many of my clients. No doubt, they seek something beyond my prescription; I just wish there were more choices.

When I followed this link, discovered in a reputable journal’s eTOC–Medscape I think, I was rather impressed. You see, periodically I check the data on Depression and acupuncture, and I am often disappointed: until now it has been weak evidence at best that it works. This year, however, in the UK results were released from a very large study conducted among eighteen thousand of patients (with pain and depression) in a slew of primary care clinics across England. Among several findings, the researchers concluded there was comparable efficacy for 12 sessions of either acupuncture and counseling for depression, and both were superior to placebo. That arm of the study was aptly called AcuD. Check it out.
I am recommending acupuncture to my clients these days.

Incidentally, the AcuD arm of the study was one of several other arms, many of which established efficacy for acupuncture in other conditions like chronic pain, etc.

Acupuncture works.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK409485/