The Clinical Study Of Electro-acupuncturing Baihui And Yingtang In The Treatment Of Insomnia

Background:Insomnia is a symptom of a sleeping disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite the opportunity. According to the National survey in China,approximately 300 million adults regularly suffer from sleeping disorder,either from insomnia or hypersomnia. Insomnia has become the second most common condition,after headache,seen in the neurology department.As the prevalence of insomnia rises,more attention has been put to focus in its field of research.The first line of treatment involves non-oharmacological strategies,cognitive behaviour therapy and sleep medications.In recent years,reports with regard to taking a Traditional Chinese medical approach have been released.Objective:To carry out a controlled experiment to investigate the curative effect of electro-acupuncturing baihui and yintang in the treatment of insomnia,using oral herbal concoction therapy in the control group.Method:In the period of January 2007 to December 2008,patients from 123 Chinese Medical Clinic in Kaohsiung,Taiwan were selected to participate in the study.They were randomly divided into treatment(electro-acupuncture) and control(herbal concoction) groups,each consisted of 30 subjects.Those in the treatment group underwent acupuncture therapy;the main chosen acupoints were baihui and yintang.According to the Chinese medical syndrome, additional points were added.Deficiency in the heart and spleen,pishu and xinshu were used:yin-deficient with heat,daling and taixi were used; qi-deficient in the heart and gall bladder,xinshu and danshu were used; retention of phlegm and heat,fenglong,and zhongwan were used;stagnation of the liver qi with heat,Xingjian and fengchi were used.After inserting needles into the two main acupoints baihui and yintang, accomplishing the acupuncture sensation,electro-acupuncture therapy was applied using the G6805 machine,tuned at a frequency of 2/100Hz of the mixed sparse-dense wave.The therapy lasted for 20 minutes,and the other needles were retained for 30 minutes.One course of treatment is five continuous days in a week,and a totat of 2 courses were done.The patients in the control group were treated using herbal concoction according to the above described Chinese medical syndromes.Deficiency in the heart and spleen,guipitang concoction was used;yin-deficient with heat, suanzaorentang concoction were used:qi-deficient in the heart and gall bladder,anshendingzhiwan concoction were used:retention of phlegm and heat, wendantang concoction with huanglian and gualou were used;stagnation of the liver qi with heat,longdanxiegantang concoction were used.The patients were prescribed concoction to be taken once a day for a course of 2 weeks.The quality of sleep was assessed in all patients before and after treatment as per the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and WHO Quality of Life-BREF(WHOQOL-BREF).All data were then statistically analyzed using the SPSS13.0 software,and the clinical effect after treatment was determined.Results:1.PSQI score" After treatment,all comoonents of the PSQI score imoroved in both the treatment and control groups(p＜0.01 and p＜0.05,respectively), with the former having a significantly better score than the latter.The cnange in the components of the PSQI score before and after treatment between the groups was statistically different,with the treatment group achieving a higher score than the control group(p＜0.01).The overal] PSQI score in both groups improved after treatment(p＜0.01).The change in the treatment group was significantly better than that of the control group(p＜0.05).2.WHOQOL-BREF:The WHOQOL-BREF score in both groups significantly increased after treatment(p＜0.01).The change in the treatment group. nowever,was significantly higher than the control group(p＜0.05).Conclusions:1.Differentiating the insomniac patients into the Chinese medical syndromes, both therapies treated accordingly resulted in satisfactory clinical 2.effects,as demonstrated by the improved PSQI and WHOQOL-BREF scores.The time to fall asleep was shortened,the duration of sleep was lengthened,quality of sleep was better,which directly improves the daytime quality of life.The study found that the effect of acupuncture was significantly better than taking herbal concoction.3.Both therapies,were able to improve the quality,of sleep,with the treatment group achieving better results than the control group.4.Electro-acupuncture therapy of the baihui and yintang was more effective in treating insomnia than taking herbal concoction.