Could acupuncture or yoga replace antidepressants someday?

Maybe not, but people are turning to alternative medicine and practices to treat depression, either as a complement to mainstream psychology and psychiatry or as something that stands alone.

World of Psychology passes on a New York Times story about a type of acupuncture that uses “ear seeds” to help smokers quit.
Apparently, people don’t mind walking around with the seeds attached to their ears if it gives them relief from addiction, anxiety and depression.

Meanwhile, an instructor at Northwestern and Columbia College Chicago is using yoga in his creative nonfiction class to help students cope with the trauma they write about. And he says it improves their writing, too.

One Columbia College student values the mind-body connection that yoga provides.

“We’re completely taught to ignore the body,” said [Tracey] Ostrand, a junior majoring in fiction writing. “You’re tired? Drink coffee. Don’t take a nap. The problem is we’re taught to ignore who we are.”