Clinical Observation of Acupuncture Based on Syndrome Differentiation in Improving the Quality of Life in Patients with Functional Dyspepsia / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture based on syndrome differentiation for functional dyspepsia (FD), and to explore the plausible action mechanism.Method Seventy-two eligible FD patients were randomized into a treatment group (36 cases) and a control group (36 cases). In the treatment group, the FD patients were divided into four types, liver-qi stagnation, spleen-stomach qi-deficiency, liver-qi affecting stomach, damp-heat accumulated in stomach, to receive acupuncture at the corresponding points based on syndrome differentiation in addition to the basic points including Zhongwan (CV12), Tianshu (ST25), Zusanli (ST36), and Neiguan (PC6); the control group was given Itopride hydrochloride tablets. Before and after intervention, the symptomatic efficacy index and the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), as well as serum Gastrin (GAS) content were observed in the two groups.Result The total effective rate was 94.1% in the treatment group, significantly higher than 63.9% in the control group (P＜0.01); after intervention, the improvement of symptomatic efficacy index in the treatment group was markedly better than that in the control group (P＜0.01); the improvements of the SF-36 component scores in the treatment group were markedly higher than those in the control group (P＜0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture based on syndrome differentiation can obviously improve the symptoms of FD patients, gastrointestinal function, and the quality of life, which is possibly realized by regulating serum GAS, and thus this treatment protocol is proper to be the optimal protocol in clinic for FD.