A Clinical Research On The Treatment Of Depression By Applying Acupuncture On Five Shu Acu-point With The Method Of Supplementary Of Weakness And Clearing Of Surplus Combining With Chinese Medicine

BackgroundDepression has a fundamental clinical performance of an obvious and consistent low mood, accompanied by the correspondent changes in thoughts and behaviors. It is a disease of mental disorder with a tendency of repetitive attacks. This disease falls within the arena of depression syndrome, organ irritation, globular air bubble, Lily disease etc, under TCM syndrome differentiation. According to the Global Health Report issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in2001, it was pointed out that there were about three hundred forty million patients suffering from depression worldwide, with a prevalence rate of11%. It became the fourth most prevalent disease. WHO predicted that by2020, depression would become the second major cause for death and disability and it would lead to the suicide of about one million people in the world every year. Following the increase in the social pressure, there is a steady rising trend in the prevalence rate of the disease. While the anti-depression drugs are unable to stabilize the condition, there are many side effects and the drugs cannot cure the disease. Worse still, the expensive price of the drugs has also limited their application. Therefore, one of the hot topics for research is to explore an effective, safe and harmless treatment method which can improve the quality of life for the depression patients. Meanwhile, the holistic approach adopted in TCM philosophy through treatments based on syndrome differentiation and multi-target effects, together with the dual regulatory effects of acupuncture, provide an edge and potential in addressing depression as mentioned above. It surely is worthy of further exploration.ObjectiveThrough systematic and rigorous clinical observations and analyses, this research primarily relies on acupuncture on Five Shu acu-point with the method of supplementary of weakness and clearing of surplus, coupled with Traditional Chinese medicine, to explore the clinical curative effects on depression and the positive impacts on the duration and quality of life. It is also intended to grasp the basic procedures and methodology of the clinical research.Research Methodology60depression patients who fit in the selection of criteria are included into the research. All of them are patients from the Yan’s Chinese Medicine&Acupuncture Treatment Centre. Using the prospective randomised controlled study methodology, all the cases are separated into two groups according to the random number table method, with30cases each in the acupuncture&medicine group (the curative group) and the medicine group (the comparison group). The research mainly deals with depression by acupuncture on Five Shu acu-point with the method of supplementary of weakness and clearing of surplus, couple with TCM philosophy through treatments based on syndrome differentiation, contrasting with the single application of treatments basing on TCM syndrome differentiation. Patients of the curative group received one dosage of Chinese medicine per day, plus acupuncture with the method of supplementary of weakness and clearing of surplus on acu-points every other day, ie thrice weekly. Each course of treatment is6weeks. Patients of the comparison group receive one dosage of Chinese medicine everyday for6weeks. Observations are conducted on the clinical changes of the signs and symptoms of the two groups on the first, second, fourth and sixth week, using the HAMD depression scale to assess the clinical curative effects, the commencement time of the effects, efficiency and the recurrent rate. The SDS depression self-assessment scale table is to be used to analyse the improvement on the patients’state of depression. The CGI scale is used to assess the overall curative effects on the two groups. It also uses the SF-36scale to assess patients’overall quality of life. Four weeks after the conclusion of the treatments, HAMD scale will be used to assess the long-term curative effects of the two groups.The SPSS13.0statistical software is employed to compare the differences between the patients’statistics within and intra group in respect of HAMD depression scale, SDS depression self-assessment score, HAMD anxiety/somatisation factor, sleep disorder factor, retardation factor, cognitive impairment factor and hopelessness factor before and after treatments. After a course of treatment, the curative effects for both groups will be analysed collectively.ResultsAfter the treatments, the scores for the HAMD depression table, SDS depression self-assessment table, HAMD anxiety/somatisation factor, sleep disorder factor, retardation factor, cognitive impairment factor and hopelessness factor for patients of both groups drop significantly (P<0.01), with the Curative Group scoring lower than the Reference Group in respect of anxiety/somatisation factor, sleep disorder factor and retardation factor. The comparison of the results shows a considerable difference in the curative effects between the two groups (P<0.05). Besides, the scores on HAMD cognitive impairment factor and hopelessness factor do not show a considerable difference in the curative effects between the two groups (P>0.05). Comparing the scores in the CGI scale table, there is an obvious difference between the two groups after treatment regarding the seriousness of the disease, overall curative effects and curative index (P<0.05). The curative effective rate is89.66%for the Curative Group and66.67%for the Reference Group. The comparison of the curative effects between the two groups shows a considerable difference (P<0.05).To sum up, both the curative group and the comparison group have curative effects in treating depression the curative group is more effective. In addition, the Curative Group has a better performance in terms of improving the anxiety/somatisation factor, sleep disorder factor and retardation factor. It shows that acupuncture combines with TCM has an edge in dealing with depression.ConelusionThis research shows that applying acupuncture on Five Shu acu-point with the method of supplementary of weakness and clearing of surplus, combined with TCM philosophy through treatments based on syndrome differentiation, has a better curative effect than the single application of treatments basing on TMC syndrome differentiation. It can effectively raise the remission rate in treating depression. It also assists in relieving patients’depression symptoms such as anxiety/somatization factor, sleep disorder factor, obstructive factor and hopelessness factor etc. There is an obvious improvement in the patients’assessment on self-awareness of the symptoms, action, health and the overall quality of life. It can be noticed that applying acupuncture on Five Shu acu-point with the method of supplementary of weakness and clearing of surplus, combined with Traditional Chinese Medicine has an irreplaceable function in treating depression.