Fourteen Cases of Appetite Loss Treated with Shoyogan / 日本東洋医学雑誌

Shoyogan is a Kampo prescription described in the <I>Junqui Yaolue</I>. Few cases have been reported using this medicine. This time, we prescribed shoyogan for 14 patients who suffered from severe appetite loss. We had positive outcomes as follows. We administered shoyogan to 8 patients with malignant disease. Six of them suffered from lung cancer. Shoyogan was effective in these patients. Shoyogan was not effective for the other 2 patients, with bile duct carcinoma and malignant lymphoma. The dietary intake was increased from 28 percent of meals supplied to 79 percent in the appetite-improved group. We also administered shoyogan to 6 patients with nonmalignant disease. It was effective for 3 patients: 1 with congestive heart failure and 2 with great trochanteric fractures of the femur. It was not effective for the other 3 patients, who suffered from anorexia, pneumonia and depression associated with diabetes mellitus. Shoyogan seems to be effective for patients with terminal lung cancer and maintains their quality of life.

A Consideration for the Indication of Daikankyoto or Daikankyoganryo / 日本東洋医学雑誌

We studied contemporary indication of daikankyoto and daikankyoganryo. We administered either of these Kampo prescriptions for thirty-three patients with intractable muscle stiffness of neck, shoulder and back.Twenty-four patients were able to take the prescriptions for more than four weeks (long term group), and nine patients stopped taking the prescriptions less than four weeks (interrupted group). In long term group, fourteen patients (58%) improved their chief compliant. The Kampo formulations of fourteen effective cases were daikankyoto (13 cases) and daikankyoganryo (1 case). Comparative analysis has been done between long term group and nine cases of interrupted group. The characteristics of long term group were higher body mass index, firmer abdomen and more positive cases of epigastric resistance sign. Kansui root dose was 0.81 gram a day in long term group and 0.57 gram a day in interrupted group, which showed statistically-significant difference. We found twenty-seven side-effects in twenty four patients (73%) including eighteen patients with nausea and six patients with diarrhea. In side effects, there was no statistically significant difference between two groups. These side effects were promptly improved after discontinuation or dose reduction of Kansui root. We report clinical courses of six improved cases in this paper, two severe stiff neck, shoulder and back cases, each one case of psychosomatic disorder, depression, spasmodic torticollis and gastroesophageal reflux. These prescriptions should be administered more commonly to the patients with severe stiff neck, shoulder and back.