ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of acupuncture on postpartum depression (PPD).MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treatment of PPD from inception to February 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed by using Stata16.0 software.ResultsA total of 13 RCTs involving 899 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between hand acupuncture and fluoxetine hydrochloride in HAMD score (MD=0.45, 95%CI −0.52 to 1.41, P=0.36), clinical effective rate (RR=0.93, 95%CI 0.70 to 1.23, P=0.59), and clinical cure rate (RR=0.88, 95%CI 0.44 to 1.76, P=0.73). However, hand acupuncture was superior in safety to fluoxetine hydrochloride (RR=0.04, 95%CI 0.01 to 0.28, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in clinical effective rate (RR=1.08, 95%CI 0.87 to 1.36, P=0.49) and cure rate (RR=1.31, 95%CI 0.84 to 2.04, P=0.24) between both groups.ConclusionsThe current evidence shows that there are no differences between hand acupuncture and non-acupuncture in reducing HAMD score, improving the clinical effective rate and clinical cure rate. Due to the limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusions.