Background Due to concerns regarding the adverse effects of drug therapy， there is an increasing interest in the use of acupuncture for the treatment of epilepsy. Although the antiepileptic effect of acupuncture has been reported in literature， its detailed mechanism remains unclear.Objective To investigate the effect of electroacupuncture （EA） on spontaneous recurrent seizures and the expression of glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 （GAD67） in hippocampal CA3 and dentate gyrus （DG） regions of epileptic rats.Methods A total of 50 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control group， epilepsy group， sham-stimulation group， non-EA group， and EA group， with 10 rats in each group. All rats except those in the control group were used to establish a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy induced by lithium-pilocarpine. After successful modeling， the rats were given acupuncture or EA at related acupoints， and the number of spontaneous recurrent seizures were observed after 8 weeks of treatment. After hippocampal tissue samples were collected from all five groups， quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels of GAD67 in hippocampal tissue， and immunohistochemistry was used to measure the protein expression level of GAD67 in hippocampal CA3 and DG regions.Results After 8 weeks of treatment， the EA group had a significant reduction in the number of spontaneous recurrent seizures compared with the epilepsy group， the sham-stimulation group， and the non-EA group （P <0.05）. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that the epilepsy group， the sham-stimulation group， the non-EA group， and the EA group had a significant reduction in the mRNA expression level of GAD67 in hippocampal tissue compared with the control group （P<0.01）； after 8 weeks of consecutive EA treatment at Baihui and Dazhui acupoints， the EA group had a significant increase in the mRNA expression level of GAD67 in hippocampal tissue compared with the epilepsy group， the sham-stimulation group， and the non-EA group （P<0.01）； there was no significant difference in the mRNA expression level of GAD67 between the sham-stimulation group and the non-EA group （P>0.05）. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry showed that the changing trend of the protein expression level of GAD67 was consistent with that of the mRNA expression level of GAD67.Conclusions EA at Baihui and Dazhui acupoints has a certain therapeutic effect on epilepsy rats， which is associated with the changes in the mRNA and protein expression levels of GAD67 in hippocampal CA3 and DG regions.