RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of five-element music therapy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the clinical symptoms and the quality of life in the patients with suboptimal health status (SHS) of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency and explore the corresponding specificity changes in the temperature of acupoints when zangfu functions are of dysfunction and recovered to be balanced, separately. METHODS: Sixty patients with SHS of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency were randomized into an observation group and a control group, 30 cases in each one. In the control group, the conventional health education was provided. In the observation group, on the base of the therapeutic regimen as the control group, the patients received the five-element music therapy to pacify the liver qi and strengthen the spleen functions, once every two days, 30 min each time, 3 treatments a week. The course of treatment consisted of 4 weeks. Before and after treatment, the TCM syndrome score and the MOS 36-item short form healthy survey (SF-36) score were compared between the two groups and the clinical therapeutic effect was evaluated. Using infrared thermal imaging, the temperature at the acupoints of the affected organs (liver, spleen), the related organs (gallbladder, stomach) and the other non-related zangfu organs (pericardium, lung) was detected before and after treatment in the two groups. RESULTS: After treatment, the TCM syndrome scores were reduced when compared with those before treatment in the two groups (P<0.01, P<0.05); the reduction in the observation group was larger than that of the control group (P<0.01). The score of each domain for the SF-36 in the observation group and the score of role-emotional domain in the control group were all increased when compared with the scores before treatment (P<0.01, P<0.05); and the score of each domain for the SF-36 in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (P<0.01). The total effective rate was 66.7% (20/30) in the observation group, which was higher than 10.0% in the control group (3/30, P<0.05). In the observation group, the temperature of the yuan-primary point, the back-shu point and the front-mu point related to the liver, as well as those related to the gallbladder after treatment was reduced when compared with the temperature before treatment; and the changes were larger than those of the control group (P<0.01). The temperature of the yuan-primary point, the back-shu point and the front-mu point related to the spleen, as well as the back-shu point and the front-mu point related to the stomach in the observation group was increased when compared with the temperature before treatment (P<0.01); and the changes were larger than those of the control group (P<0.01). For the temperature of the non-specific points related to the liver and spleen, as well as the yuan-primary point, the back-shu point and the front-mu point related to the pericardium and the lung, there was no significant differences when compared with the temperature at the above-mentioned acupoints before and after treatment (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: TCM five-element music therapy associated with the conventional health education may effectively relieve the clinical symptoms and improve the quality of life in the patients with suboptimal health status of liver stagnation and sleep deficiency; and the therapeutic effect is better than the simple health education. The changes in the temperature of acupoints may reflect the functional regulation of the related zangfu organs in the body.