• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.13-25
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• 2022

Objective This study aimed to analyze randomized controlled trials of the effect of acupuncture on Tourette syndrome and to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment. Methods Based on the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Pubmed search with the key search terms of 'Tourette syndrome, acupuncture', dated from 2000 to 2021, ten randomized controlled trials were identified and analyzed for this study. Results 1. The most commonly used acupoints were Taechung (LR3), Sinmun (HT7), Hapgok (LI4), Pungji (GB20) and Backhoe (GV20). 2. The most commonly used meridians were Bladder Meridian, Stomach Meridian and Gallbladder Meridian. 3. Acupuncture treatment was found to be significantly more or equally effective than western medicine such as haloperidol and tiapride. Conclusions Based on the results of the randomized controlled trials analyzed in this study, acupuncture was found to be effective in the treatment of Tourette syndrome. However, more clinical studies are needed to prove the effectiveness of acupuncture in Tourette syndrome.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.90-111
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the effect and safety of Korean Traditional Medicine treatment for postpartum pain, and to suggest desirable future clinical research trend. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on postpartum pain were searched using domestic and foreign search engines to investigate the effect and safety of Korean Traditional Medicine on postpartum pain, and 12 studies were selected as a result. Results: There were 4 studies using Acupoint Therapy, 3 studies using Herbal Medicine, 3 studies using Using Acupoint Therapy and Herbal Medicine together, and 2 studies using Manipulative Therapy for postpartum pain. As control interventions, non-treatment, other Korean Traditional Medicine treatment, or Western medicine were used. All the studies reported a significant effect in experimental group compared to the control group, with no or minor side effects. Conclusions: Korean Traditional Medicine treatment showed effectiveness and safety for postpartum pain. In the future, it is necessary to eliminate the ambiguity of recruiting subjects and to study the most effective application method of Korean Traditional Medicine treatment for postpartum pain.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2015

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate current clinical evidence of traditional Korean medicine treatment on wrist pain with carpal tunnel syndrome. Methods : Ten Korean databases were searched for prospective clinical trials of traditional Korean medicine therapy on wrist pain with carpal tunnel syndrome from the time of their inception to February, 2015. Studies conducted in Korean, Chinese and English were searched. Risk of bias in included non-randomized controlled trials was assessed by the Cochrane handbook procedure. Results : Four non-randomized controlled trials were included. A high risk of bias was observed in all trials. All of the included studies reported favorable effects being experienced by an intervention group compared to a baseline or control group. Included studies never described any occurrence of adverse events. Conclusions : There is no evidence that traditional Korean medicine treatments are effective for treating wrist pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. All of the included studies lacked appropriate methodological qualities and internal validity. Future well-designed clinical trials that evaluate the effects and safety of traditional Korean medicine treatment for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome are needed.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2020

The purpose of this review is to confirm whether Soyo-san (Xiaoyao-san) and its modifications is effective on alleviating clinical symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients. We collected clinical trials (randomized controlled trial, quasi-randomized controlled trial, controlled clinical trial) to investigate the effects of Soyo-san and its modifications on general symptoms, fatigue, depression and anxiety in CFS patients. The databases used for data retrieval were Pubmed, Central Cochrane, Embase, CNKI, CQVIP, Wanfang, CiNii, OASIS, RISS, and Koreamed. We performed selection/exclusion process from the found studies to conform with prespecified criteria, and assessed the final included trials according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The included studies were classified based on the interventions in experimental and control group. Eight randomized controlled trials and one controlled clinical trial (total 921 participants) were eligible and their results were synthesized in the meta analysis. The synthesis showed a considerable effect of Soyo-san and its modifications on improvement of general symptoms (relative risk 0.27 [95% CI 0.19 to 0.39], Z=7.03, P<0.00001; I2=0%) and fatigue severity (SMD -1.20 [95% CI -1.46 to -0.93], Z=8.78, P<0.00001; I2=52%) in CFS patients, while Effect on depression and anxiety were inconclusive. We found that Soyo-san and its modifications were effective for improvement of general symptoms and fatigue severity in CFS post-treatment.

• Journal of Korean Medicine for Obesity Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.56-67
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review clinical studies of herb medicine and acupuncture treatment on obesity in menopausal women. Methods: Key words "Obesity", "Menopause", "Herb medicine", "Acupuncture", "Moxibustion", "Catgut embedding" were searched on 9 database systems (PubMed Central, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials, Embase, China Academic Journals, Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean Studies Information Service System, National Digital Science Library, DBpia) on April 30th 2019. Results: 1 case report and 17 clinical trials were collected in accordance with the selection and exclusion criteria. Among the 17 trials, 6 were randomized controlled trials, 1 was controlled clinical trial, and 10 were single-arm trials. The types of intervention were herb medicine, electroacupuncture, acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, warm needle acupuncture, moxibustion, laser acupuncture, and catgut embedding. The study design, study results and method of intervention were analyzed. Conclusions: 1 case report described the effectiveness of pharmacopuncture, 4 trials described the effectiveness of herbal medicine, 2 of electroacupuncture, 1 of laser acupuncture, and 2 of catgut embedding. Among the 17 trials, 2 studies showed that herbal medicine treatment was more effective than no treatment or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and 1 study showed that electroacupuncture was more effective than hormone therapy. All of 18 selected studies reported the effectiveness of weight reduction and abdominal obesity reduction after the traditional Korean medicine treatment for obesity in menopausal women.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.18-36
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• 2020

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze Chinese randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the oral herbal medicine treatment for pediatric chickenpox. Methods We searched RCTs after 2000s from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Afterwards, the year of publication, demographic information, duration of chickenpox, intervention, treatment duration, outcome measure, results and adverse events were investigated and analyzed for this study. Results 21 RCTs out of 219 studies were collected and analyzed. Although each composition of the herbal medicine was different, they have common ingredients such as 清熱解毒, 散結消腫, 疏散風熱, 涼血解毒, 解表散風 in order to make efficacy of 清熱解毒, 散結消腫, 疏散風熱, 涼血解毒, 解表散風. The oral herbal medicine showed better efficacy and safety to improve clinical symptoms such as total efficacy, cure rate, antipyretic time, antipruritic time, scab time, anti-rash time, hospitalization period and herpes recovery time compared to the western medicine treatment. Conclusions These results show that the oral herbal medicine treatment on chickenpox in children may be more effective in reducing of clinical symptoms compared to the western medicine treatment.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.12-22
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• 2020

Objectives : The aim of this study is to review the trend of clinical trials conducted with the intradermal acupuncture treatment on dry eye syndrome. Methods : Through 4 foreign online databases(PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and CNKI) and 3 domestic online databases(NDSL, RISS, and OASIS), we searched for clinical studies performed acupuncture treatment for dry eye syndrome from 2000 to 2020. Only randomized controlled trials(RCT) were selected and analyzed with the research method. Results : A total of 4 studies were reviewed. Cuanzu(攢竹, BL2), Taiyang(太陽, EX-HN5), and Sibai(四白, ST2) were the most frequently used acupoints in the studies. Among the evaluation indexes, Schirmer I test(SIT), tear film break-up time(BUT) were the most frequently used outcomes. In the most of the 4 studies, intradermal acupuncture treatment showed significant therapeutic effects for dry eye syndrome. Conclusions : These results suggest that it is necessary to develop more detailed standards for intradermal acupuncture treatment method as the method of intradermal acupuncture is getting more diverse, and objective tools are needed to evaluating dry eye syndrome.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2020

A total of 1,235 studies were retrieved on June 23, 2019, from 3 databases. Selected 59 studies were evaluated by year of publication, study type, subject condition/disease, acupoint, standards for reporting interventions in clinical trials of moxibustion (STRICTOM), Cochrane risk of bias (RoB), and risk of bias assessment tool for non-randomized study (RoBANS). Most studies were conducted in 2011, after which the number of studies decreased. The most common study type was 25 case reports (CR), 16 uncontrolled clinical trials (UCT), 11 randomized controlled trials (RCT), and 7 controlled clinical trials (CCT). Moxibustion treatment was mainly used for musculoskeletal and circulatory diseases/conditions. A total of 83 acupoints were used, A-shi points being the most used. As for STRICTOM, an average of 7.4 items were satisfactory for UCT and CR without a control group, and an average of 9.4 items were satisfactory for RCT and CCT. RCT was assessed using the RoB, and many items were rated as uncertain. In this study, the need for RCT of moxibustion treatment in Korea was identified. The detailed description of study methods and results will provide evidence for the efficacy of moxibustion treatment in preventive and therapeutic aspects of Korean traditional medicine.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.149-163
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review RCTs on pharmacopuncture treatment for musculoskeletal diseases and to establish standards of pharmacopuncture treatment model. Methods : We searched articles up to date of March 2009 via computerized databases of Pubmed, The Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Journal of Korean institute of Herbal Acupuncture, Journal of Oriental Rehabilitation and Journal of Korean Oriental Medicine. Only Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) concerning the effects of pharmacopuncture on musculoskeletal diseases. The pharmacopuncture treatment methods were assessed based on STRICTA and items considering the feature of pharmacopuncture. And the methodological quality of the trials was assessed by FEAS and modified Jadad score. Results : Eighteen trials of pharmacopuncture on musculoskeletal diseases were analyzed. Except for 4 trials comparing the effect of SBV and BV, positive outcome was reported in ten trials. Among eighteen trials; most of the trials were about Bee Venom acupuncture, and most of the trials used about five acupuncture points, mainly local acupuncture points. But, the amount of injection to each point and total injection were various. And most of trials were lack in the information about method of stimulation. The adjusted FEAS score ranged from 0 to 12, and modified Jadad scoreranged from 1 to 5. Conclusions: To standardize pharmacopuncture treatment, we need more well-designed, high quality clinical trials. And methodological assessment tools designed for pharmacopuncture treatment are also needed.

• Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.376-382
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• 2018

We reviewed clinical studies investigating the pharmacological treatment of major depressive episodes (MDEs) with mixed features diagnosed according to the dimensional criteria (more than two or three [hypo]manic symptoms+principle depressive symptoms). We systematically reviewed published randomized controlled trials on the pharmacological treatment of MDEs with mixed features associated with mood disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). We searched the PubMed, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases through December 2017 with the following key word combinations linked with the word OR: (a) mixed or mixed state, mixed features, DMX, mixed depression; (b) depressive, major depressive, MDE, MDD, bipolar, bipolar depression; and (c) antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabilizer, anticonvulsant, treatment, medication, algorithm, guideline, pharmacological. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We found few randomized trials on pharmacological treatments for MDEs with mixed features. Of the 36 articles assessed for eligibility, 11 investigated MDEs with mixed features in mood disorders: six assessed the efficacy of antipsychotic drugs (lurasidone and ziprasidone) in the acute phase of MDD with mixed features, although four of these were post hoc analyses based on large randomized controlled trials. Four studies compared antipsychotic drugs (olanzapine, lurasidone, and ziprasidone) with placebo, and one study assessed the efficacy of combination therapy (olanzapine+fluoxetine) in the acute phase of BD with mixed features. Pharmacological treatments for MDEs with mixed features have focused on antipsychotics, although evidence of their efficacy is lacking. Additional well-designed clinical trials are needed.