58 cases with generalized anxiety were randomly assigned to two groups. The treatment group 29 cases were treated "Jin Three Needling" (Si Shen Cong, Ding Shen Xue-Yin tang above 0.5 cun and
Yangbai (GB14) above 0.5 cun,
Neiguan (PC6) Luo-Connecting Point the Eight Confluent Point,
Shenmen (HT7) Shu-Stream, Yuan-Primary Point,
Sanyinjiao (SP6)) with acupuncture, and the control group 29 cases were treated with anti-anxiety western medications. The treatment course was 6 weeks. The effects were evaluated with Hamilton anxiety scale (HAMA), clinical global impression (CGI), and treatment emergent symptom scale (TESS) before treatment and at the end of the 2nd, 4th and 6th week of the treatment course. The 5-HT in platelet, plasma levels of corticosterone (CS) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were measured before and after treatment.
Results: the clinical effects in the two groups equivalent, while the adverse reaction found in the acupuncture group was less than that in the control group (P<0.05). The platelet concentration of 5-HT and plasma ACTH level decreased significantly in both groups after treatment with insignificant difference between those two groups. The plasma CS level had no obvious change in the two groups after treatment as compared with that before treatment respectively.
Conclusion: "Jin Three Needling" has similar curative effect on generalized anxiety to routine medication but with less adverse reaction, which may be realized through regulating the platelet 5-HT concentration and plasma ACTH level.
Key Words: Jin's Three Needling , generalized anxiety disorder
Writer: Wenzheng Luo, Haijing Liu, Shangying Mei
College of Acupuncture and Massage, Guangzhou University of TCM, Guangzhou (510405)
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