A Clinical Study Of Therapy Of Electroacupuncture At The Temple-Three-Needle On Post-Stroke Depression

Objective: To study the effects of therapy of electroacupuncture at theTemple-Three-Needle on post-stroke depression (PSD). Methods: Sixtycases with minor or middle PSD were randomly divided into treatment group(n:30) and control group(n=30). All the patients were given the basic therapyof cerebrovascular disease equally, were underwent physiotherapy(PT) andoccupatinal therapy(OT) individually. The treatment group were treated byelectroacupuncture at Temple-Three-Needle plus fluoxetine(20mg once daily),and control group were given fluoxetine(20mg once daily) only, withoutacupuncture treatment, and the treatment course was four weeks in both groups.All the patients were assessed by use of the Hamilton rating scale fordepression(HRSD) and the Zung self-rating depression scale(SDS) respectivelybefore treatment, one week, two weeks, three weeks and four weeks aftertreatment. The ability of activities of daily living(ADL) and quality oflife(QOL) were evaluated with the functional independence measure(FIM) andthe brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Lifeinstrument(WHOQOL-BREF) before treatment and four weeks after treatment, andthe treatment emergent symptoms scale(TESS) were used respectively four weeksafter treatment. The baseline information (include age, sex, course of disease,stroke type, and the depression level before treatment) of the two groupswere analyzed by chi-square test and T test. The scores of HRSD and SDS wereanalyzed by one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA). The scores of FIM andWHOQOL-BREF were analyzed by paired-samples T test, and the average numberof two groups by independent-samples T test. Results: The baselineinformation of the two groups had no significant difference by chi-square testand T test(P＞0.05). The scores of HRSD and SDS of the treatment group were found to decrease after two weeks of treatment, with a significant differencecomparing to that of treatment before (p＜0.05). The scores of HRSD and SDSof the control group were found to decrease three weeks after treatment, witha significant difference comparing to treatment before (p＜0.05). There wasa significant difference of the scores of HRSD, SDS after two weeks betweenthe two groups. The scores of FIM of both groups had a significant differencecomparing to the treatment before (p＜0.01), and the scores of treatment group.is higher than the control group, with a significant difference (p＜0.01).The scores of every index of WHOQOL-BREF of the treatment group hadsignificant difference after treatment(p＜0.01), and the same with the controlgroup(G1, G4 p＜0.05, the others p＜0.01). Four weeks after treatment, thedifferences of all the index of WHOQOL-BREF between the two group wassignificant(the Psychological and the Environment p＜0.05, the others p＜0.05). There was no obvious side effect discovered in the two groups.Conclusion: The therapy of electroacupuncture at the Temple-Three-Needle plusfluoxetine can alleviated the degree of depression, improve the ability ofADL and QOL on the patients with PSD effectively, and has a more obvious effectand get the effect more quickly than the therapy of fluoxetine only. Becauseof the minor specimen and shortage of long-term observation, further researchis needed to do.