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Received: 24 April 2017 Accepted: 28 July 2017 Published: xx xx xxxx

Acupuncture for behavioral changes of experimental depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis Ren-zhong Kou1, Hong Chen1, Mei-ling Yu1, Tian-cheng Xu1, Shu-ping Fu1,2 & Sheng-feng Lu1,2 Acupuncture is considered to be a promising alternative therapy for depression. Nevertheless, up to now, it remains controversial on the effects exerted by acupuncture on behavioral changes in depression models. Consequently, it’s necessary to develop a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of acupuncture for model rats of depression. Ultimately, 90 studies involving 1861 models were identified. Behavioral indicators including the number of crossings (NC) and the number of rearings (NR) in open field test (OFT), the capacity of sucrose intake (CSI) and the rate of sucrose intake (RSI) in sucrose intake test (SIT), final weight (FW) and gain weight (GW) were employed as main outcomes in depression model rats. The pooled results showed that acupuncture had not less effect than western medicine on improving NC, NR, FW, GW, RSI (P > 0.05). However, the CSI improvement was poorer compared with west medicine (P