Acupuncture with Du’s heat-reinforcing method for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

To compare the clinical efficacy of Du’s heat-reinforcing method and Western medication in treating diarrheapredominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). Sixty-five IBS-D patients were randomized into two groups by the random number table. Thirty-three cases in the treatment group were intervened by acupuncture with Du’s heat-reinforcing method, while thirty-two cases in the control group were given oral administration of pinaverium bromide tablets. The intervention lasted 4 weeks for both groups. The IBS symptom severity score (IBS-SSS), IBS-quality of life (IBS-QOL) and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD) were adopted to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy. The two groups each had two dropout cases. The clinical recovery rate was 38.7% and the total effective rate was 90.3% in the treatment group versus 13.3% and 66.7% in the control group. The treatment group was superior to the control group in both clinical recovery rate and total effective rate (both P<0.05). After 1-week and 4-week treatment, respectively, the IBS-SSS scores were lower compared with the baseline in both groups, and the intra-group differences were statistically significant (both P<0.05); the score in the treatment group was lower than that in the control group, and the between-group difference was statistically significant (both P<0.05). After 4-week treatment, the component scores of IBS-QOL showed improvements in both groups, and the treatment group was superior to the control group in the improvements of dysphoria, interference with activity, health worry and food avoidance (all P<0.05). The anxiety and depression scales of HAD (HAD-a, HAD-d) in the treatment group and the HAD-a in the control group obtained significant improvements (all P<0.05); the scores of HAD-a and HAD-d in the treatment group were significantly better than those in the control group (both P<0.05). Acupuncture with Du’s heat-reinforcing method can effectively ease the symptoms of IBS-D, improve the quality of life and the state of anxiety and depression. It can produce a more significant efficacy than oral administration of pinaverium bromide tablets.