Objective To analyze the literature of acupuncture treating insomnia with depression and anxiety at home and abroad to provide basis for improving the quality of clinical report in this field. Methods The clinical research literature published during January of 2005 to December of 2014 of acupuncture treating insomnia with depression and anxiety at home and abroad were reviewed. The information was extracted and analyzed based on control

randomization

diagnostic criteria in Chinese and western medicine

sample size

intervention methods

intervention time

effect evaluation methods

long term effect evaluation

follow-up and description of side effect. Results Nineteen up-to-standard papers were included

with 16 papers in Chinese

3 papers in English. Seventeen papers were randomized controlled trials. Twelve researches adopted Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders-3（ CCMD-3） as diagnostic criteria in western medicine. As for intervention methods

12 researches used acupuncture or acusector alone. Intervention time of included papers was 20 days to 6 weeks. As for examination indexes

14 researches adopted Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index（ PSQI） scale and Selfrating Depression Scale（ SDS）.Eleven researches adopted Selfrating Anxiety Scale（ SAS）. Twelve researches calculated total effective rate and all the results showed that the rate in the test group was higher than that in the control group. Only 2 researches recorded follow-up. Six researches described side effect and fallen off cases. Conclusion Most of the clinical researches of acupuncture treating insomnia with depression and anxiety at home and abroad adopted randomized controlled methods

while there were not unified diagnostic criteria. There were many intervention methods. Intervention time was short. Long term follow-up was lacked. Most of the papers did not describe the side effect and the loss rate. The clinical research design needed further improvement.