Clinical Study of Electro-acupuncture Treatment with Different Intensities for Functional Constipation Patients

• Published in: Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Medical sciences Vol. 34; no. 5; pp. 775 - 781
• Main Author: 熊繁 王颖 黎诗祷 田曼 郑翠红 黄光英
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Huazhong University of Science and Technology 01.10.2014; Institute of Integrative Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Tongji Hospital Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
• Subjects: Acupuncture Points; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Anxiety - therapy; Constipation - physiopathology; Constipation - therapy; Defecation - physiology; Depression - therapy; Electroacupuncture - methods; Female; Humans; Hydrocortisone - blood; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - methods; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - statistics & numerical data; SDS; Substance P - blood; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide - blood; VIP; Young Adult; 临床; 便秘; 枸橼酸莫沙必利; 生活质量; 电针治疗; 高强度; functional constipation; current intensity; electro-acupuncture; shangjuxu (ST37); quchi (LI11); shangiuxu (ST37)
• ISSN: 1672-0733; 1993-1352
• DOI: 10.1007/s11596-014-1351-8

Functional constipation （FC） is a common functional bowel disorder disease that affects life quality of a large number of people. This study aimed to explore the impact of different intensities of electro-acupuncture （EA） treatment for FC patients. Totally, 111 patients with FC meeting the Rome III criteria were randomly assigned to different intensities of EA groups （low and high intensity of EA groups） and medicine-controlled （MC） group. In EA groups, patients were treated with EA at quchi （Llll） and shangjuxu （ST37） bilaterally for 4 weeks, 5 times/week in the first 2 weeks, and 3 times/week in the last 2 weeks. In MC group, 5 mg mosapride citrate was administered orally 3 times/day for 4 weeks. Spontaneous bowel movement frequency each day was recorded using a consti- pation diary. Self-rating anxiety scale （SAS） and self-rating depression scale （SDS） were used to assess the patients＇ psychological state. Cortisol （CORT）, substance P （SP）, and vasoactive intestinal polypep- tide （VIP） were evaluated at baseline and at the end of 4 weeks after treatment. As compared with the baseline, there was statistically significant increase in stool frequency every week （P〈0.01）, but there was no statistically significant difference among the three groups. As compared with the baseline, after 4 weeks of EA therapy, the scores of SDS and serum levels of CORT were decreased significantly in low intensity of EA group （P〈0.01）, and the serum levels of SP and VIP were increased significantly （P〈0.05）; the scores of SAS and SDS and serum levels of CORT were decreased significantly in high intensity of EA group （P〈0.05）, and the serum levels of SP and VIP were increased significantly （P〈0.05）; the serum levels of CORT and VIP were increased significantly in MC group （P〈0.05）. As compared with MC group, after 4 weeks of treatment, the serum levels of SP were signifcicantly in- creased in low intensity of EA group （P〈0.01）. Low and high intensities of EA could increase the stool frequency, improve the FC patient＇s anxiety and depression, reduce the serum levels of CORT, and in- crease the serum levels of SP and VIP effectively. It is concluded that both low and high intensities of EA are effective for FC patients, but there is no significant difference between the low and high intensi- ties of EA.