Acupuncture with Du's heat-reinforcing method for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome:a randomized controlled trial

Xue ZHANG; Min DING; Hua FENG

ABSTRACT

Objective:

To compare the clinical efficacy of Du's heat-reinforcing method and Western medication in treating diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D).

Methods:

Sixty-five IBS-D patients were randomized into two groups by the random number table.Thirty-three cases in the treatment group were intervened by acupuncture with Du's heat-reinforcing method,while thirty-two cases in the control group were given oral administration of pinaverium bromide tablets.The intervention lasted 4 weeks for both groups.The IBS symptom severity score (IBS-SSS),IBS-quality of life (IBS-QOL) and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD) were adopted to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy.

Results:

The two groups each had two dropout cases.The clinical recovery rate was 38.7％ and the total effective rate was 90.3％ in the treatment group versus 13.3％ and 66.7％ in the control group.The treatment group was superior to the control group in both clinical recovery rate and total effective rate (both P＜0.05).After 1-week and 4-week treatment,respectively,the IBS-SSS scores were lower compared with the baseline in both groups,and the intra-group differences were statistically significant (both P＜0.05);the score in the treatment group was lower than that in the control group,and the between-group difference was statistically significant (both P＜0.05).After 4-week treatment,the component scores of IBS-QOL showed improvements in both groups,and the treatment group was superior to the control group in the improvements of dysphoria,interference with activity,health worry and food avoidance (all P＜0.05).The anxiety and depression scales of HAD (HAD-a,HAD-d) in the treatment group and the HAD-a in the control group obtained significant improvements (all P＜0.05);the scores of HAD-a and HAD-d in the treatment group were significantly better than those in the control group (both P＜0.05).

Conclusion:

Acupuncture with Du's heat-reinforcing method can effectively ease the symptoms of IBS-D,improve the quality of life and the state of anxiety and depression.It can produce a more significant efficacy than oral administration of pinaverium bromide tablets.