ABSTRACT
Objective:To evaluate the effect of five-element acupuncture on clinical symptoms, brain metabolism and immunoglobulin level in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.Methods:It was a randomized controlled trial. A total of 94 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome in our hospital from January 2021 to January 2022 were selected and divided into two groups according to the random number table method, with 47 in each group. The conventional western medicine group was treated with conventional western medicine, and the five-element acupuncture group was treated with five-element acupuncture on the basis of the conventional western medicine group. Both groups were treated for 4 weeks. Before and after treatment, the serum levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), corticosterone (CORT), IL-2 and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) were detected by ELISA; the levels of natural killer (NK) cells, CD4 +, CD8 +, IgG and IgM were detected by flow cytometry; the whole body superconducting MRI scanner was used to scan T2 Flair, T2WI and TlWI sequences of the hippocampus, and the spectral curves and the areas under the peak of N-acetylaspartic acid (NAA), creatine (Cr) and choline (Cho) were obtained, and the ratios of Cho/Cr and NAA/Cr were calculated. the fatigue Scale-14 (FS-14) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were used to evaluate the fatigue state of the patients, and the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used to evaluate the anxiety state of the patients. Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and Somatic and Mental Health Report Score (SPHERE) were used to evaluate the quality of life of patients. And the clinical efficacy was evaluated. Results:After treatment, the levels of IgG, CD4 + and NK in the five-element acupuncture group were significantly higher than those in the conventional western medicine group ( t values were 4.76, 3.65, 6.42, respectively, P<0.01), and the level of IgM, CD8 + was significantly lower than that in the conventional western medicine group ( t values were 7.30, 4.79, P<0.01); the levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 and 5-HT in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the conventional western medicine group ( t values were 7.60, 4.05, 2.79, respectively, respectively, P<0.01), and the level of CORT was significantly lower than that in the conventional western medicine group ( t=6.72, P<0.01); the NAA/Cr levels in the left [(1.10±0.04) vs. (1.05±0.03), t=6.86] and right [(1.18±0.02) vs. (1.21±0.03), t=8.23] hippocampus of the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the conventional western medicine group ( P<0.01), and the Cho/Cr levels in the left [(1.08±0.04) vs. (1.03±0.03), t=5.70] and right [(1.17±0.02) vs. (1.20±0.03), t=5.71] hippocampus of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the conventional western medicine group ( P<0.01). After treatment, the scores of physical fatigue, mental fatigue and FSS in the five-element acupuncture group were significantly lower than those in the conventional western medicine group ( t values were 8.08, 9.08 and 7.07, respectively, P<0.01). The scores of DASS-21, BAI, SCL-90 and SPHERE in the conventional western medicine group were significantly lower than those in the conventional western medicine group ( t values were 3.63, 5.77, 8.74, 5.92, respectively, P<0.01).The total effective rate was 95.74% (45/47) in the five-element acupuncture group and 82.98% (39/47) in the conventional western medicine group, and there was no significant difference between the two groups ( χ2=2.80, P=0.094). Conclusion:Five-elements acupuncture can improve the expression of T lymphocytes, increase the levels of immunoglobulin and NK, reduce the level of CORT, regulate the brain metabolism of NAA in the left and right hippocampus, improve the clinical symptoms and negative emotions, and improve the clinical efficacy and quality of life in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of acupoint catgut embedding combined with Ziwu-Liuzhu theory based acupuncture on the clinical efficacy and sleep quality of depressive patients. Methods A total of 64 patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into two groups, 32 in each group. The control group was treated with routine electro-acupuncture, while the observation group was treated with acupoint catgut embedding combined with Ziwu-Liuzhu theory based acupuncture. Both groups were treated for 8 weeks. Sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and depression was assessed by Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) to evaluate the clinical efficacy. Results After treatment, the HAMD score (11.3 ± 2.4 vs. 14.5 ± 2.6, t=4.986) and PSQI index (9.6 ± 2.3 vs. 11.8 ± 2.5, t=3.307) in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.01). The quality of life (12.9 ± 2.3 vs. 11.3 ± 2.5, t=2.598) and mental health score (13.5 ± 2.4 vs. 11.3 ± 2.6, t=3.413) of WHOQOL-BREF scale in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01). The total effective rate was 93.8％ (30/32) in the observation group and 75.0％ (24/32) in the control group. There were significant differences between the two groups (χ2=4.246, P=0.038). Conclusions Acupoint catgut embedding combined with Ziwu-Liuzhu theory based acupuncture can effectively improve depressive state, sleep quality and quality of life in patients with depression, and the curative effect is better than conventional electro- acupuncture treatment.