The Clinical Trial Of Electro-acupuncture To Treat Functional Diarrhea

Objective: To observe the effects of electro-acupuncture on relieving the clinical symptoms, the quality of life and mental health of patients with functional diarrhea. The therapeutical effects of high and low current intensity groups will also be compared.Methods: Seventy-three participants with functional diarrhea were recruited and allocated randomly into three groups, including high current intensity group, low current intensity group and loperamide control group. Participants in electro-acupuncture groups including the high current intensity group and the low current intensity group received 16 sessions of acupuncture treatment over a period of 4 weeks. The acupuncture points Tianshu(ST25) and Dachangshu(BL25) were punctured bilaterally. The difference was that the electric current of low current intensity group was usually less than 0.1m A which made participants comfortable exactly and the current of high current intensity group could be powerful enough to reach the tolerance threshold value of patients. The control group received loperamide hydrochloride 2 mg three times a day also for 4 weeks. The follow-up time was 4 weeks after the treatment period. The main measures included the numbers of spontaneous bowel movements(SBMs), stool consistency, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale(SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale(SDS) and MOS item Short Form health survey(SF-36).Results: The number of weekly SBMs after the treatment were all significantly improved in three groups compared with baseline(P<0.05), while the high current intensity group and the loperamide control group took more rapidly effects than the low current intensity group. The treatment of three groups significantly improved the mean consistency of stools values compared with baseline(P<0.05). In addition, all of them had continued therapeutical effect during the follow-up(P<0.05). There was no significant difference about weekly responder rates among the three groups in the eight weeks(P>0.05). Monthly responder rates also had no difference among the threegroups in the two months(P>0.05).After treatment, the low current intensity group had significant improvement in the SAS and SDS scores compared with baseline(P<0.05), the change of the SDS scores was more significant than the control group(P<0.05). The high current intensity group had significant improvement in the SAS scores compared with baseline(P<0.05), but there were no significant change in the SDS scores after treatment(P>0.05). The loperamide control group did not have any significant improvement in the SAS and SDS scores(P>0.05). The scores of items including Vitality, Mental Health and General Health were significantly reduced after the treatment of low current intensity group(P<0.05). The treatment of high current intensity group significantly improved the score of General Health(P<0.05). The control group did not have significant improvement in the all items of SF-36(P>0.05).Conclusions: The three groups have significant improvement in clinical symptoms, but the low current intensity group has slower effect on the improvement of the number of weekly SBMs. The treatment of low current intensity group improves the quality of life and the anxious and depressive condition, and the treatment of high current intensity group just improves the quality of life and anxious condition, while the medicine group does not have any improvement in the quality of life, the anxious condition and depressive condition. Comparably, the low current intensity group has best therapeutical effects on the quality of life and mental health.