Clinical efficacy observation of thalamic pain treated with acupuncture under the guidance of evidence-based medicine

Objective To study the feasibility of the crossover trial design and the minimal imbalance index random distribution method in the clinical small-sample-size randomized controlled trial（RCT） research of thalamic pain treated with acupuncture under the guidance of evidence-based medicine（EBM）.Methods The crossover trial design was adopted.Eleven cases with the definite diagnosis were randomized into a program-I group（6 cases,treated with acupuncture before western medicine） and a program-II group（5 cases,treated with western medicine before acupuncture） according to the minimal imbalance index method.In the statistical analysis,the groups were named as an acupuncture group and a western medicine group separately,11 cases in each one.Acupuncture was applied to Xìmén（郄门 PC 4）,Yīnxì（阴郄 HT 6）,Xuèhǎi（血海 SP 10）,etc.In the control treatment,Carbamazepine was prescribed for oral administration.Either the duration of treatment or the wash-out period was 10 days.The visual analogue scale（VAS） was adopted for the efficacy assessment.Results The total effective was 100.0%（11/11） after treatment in either group.The remarkably effective rates were 63.6%（7/11） and 36.4%（4/11） in the acupuncture group and the western medicine group separately,without statistically significant difference in comparison.Conclusion The crossover trial design and the minimal imbalance index distribution method can accomplish RCT of the clinical acupuncture and moxibustion research with the small sample size involved.They can provide the high-quality evidences for clinical acupuncture research.Acupuncture therapy can achieve the same therapeutic effect as Carbamazepine,the common western medicine,and the efficacy of it is potentially superior to that of western medicine.

AN OBSERVATION OF THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF WARMING NEEDLING TECHNIQUE ON JIAJI POINTS FOR THE TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON EEG-α WAVE IN PATIENTS

Objective To discuss the therapeutic effect and mechanism of warming needling technique for the treatment of depression. Methods A total of 60 patients with depression were randomly divided into treatment group and control group with 30 cases each. The treatment group was treated with warming needle technique on the Jiaji points of the heart, lung, liver, spleen and kidney, control group with Amitriptyline, HAMD scale and the qualitative change of EEG-α wave were observed before and after the treatment. Results The total effective rate of treatment group was 100%, much better than that of the control group with 80% (P<0.05); the HAMD scale of treatment group was better than that of control group (P<0.05); the comparison of the improvement of somatic symptoms between treatment group and control group was significant (P<0.05); the comparison of frequency and amplitude of EEG-α wave was significant (P<0.05), there was no toxic and side effect in the treatment group. Conclusion Warming needling technique for depression has better effect than Amitriptyline, and there was no toxic and side effect in the treatment group. Warming needle technique can effectively regulate the frequency and amplitude EEG-α wave, and acts to improve depressive condition.