[Acupoint injection of kakkonein for early- or mid-stage Parkinson's disease: a multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial].
[Acupoint injection of kakkonein for early- or mid-stage Parkinson's disease: a multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial].
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Original abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate short- and long-term benefits and safety of acupoint injection of kakkonein for early- or mid-stage Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: A total of 135 patients with early- or mid-stage PD were enlisted and 116 cases completed the observation, including 40 cases in the acupoint-injection group, 37 cases in the acupuncture group and 39 cases in the medication group. Patients of the acupoint-injection group were treated by injection of kakkonein (2 mL) into bilateral Fengchi (GB 20), once very other day for 8 weeks. For acupuncture intervention, bilateral GB 20 acupoints were punctured with filiform needles, once every other day for 8 weeks. Patients of the medication group were treated by oral administration of compound levodopa (125 mg/time, twice a day) for 8 weeks. The disease severity was assessed by using Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS, version 3. 0) before and after treatment, and one month after the treatment. RESULTS: After the treatment, scores of psychosis, behavior and emotion, daily life activity and motor function were all significantly decreased in the three groups in comparison with pre-treatment in each group (P<0.05), suggesting an improvement of the PD patients' conditions. The therapeutic effect of acupoint-injection and acupuncture groups was markedly superior to that of the medication group (P<0.05). One-month's follow-up showed that the scores of behavior-emotion and daily life activity were obviously lower in the acupoint-injection group than in the acupuncture and medication groups (P<0.05). No significant differences were found between the acupuncture and medication groups in down-regulating scores of behavior-emotion, daily life activity and motor function (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupoint injection of kakkonein can improve patients' behavior, emotion, and daily life activity in early- or mid-stage PD patients and has both short- and longer-term benefits.