Abstract
AbstractBased on a longstanding tradition of herbal medicine usage, plant‐based drugs today have the status of well‐controlled registered pharmacy‐only drugs in Germany. More than two thirds of the German population are regularly taking herbal medicinal products confirming the high acceptance of phytotherapy.Among other foreign herbal traditions, Japanese traditional herbal Kampo medicine with its unique diagnostic and therapeutic characteristics and high level of scientific evidence meets growing interest in Germany and is applied by medical doctors within the framework of integrative medicine. Main indications for Kampo prescriptions are various functional complaints and chronic conditions, among them also chronic pain.Representing our clinical experiences with Kampo treatment in Germany over many years, four exemplary clinical cases are presented here, where Kampo prescriptions were successfully administered to German outpatients to relieve pain. The conditions were: two different patient cases suffering from recurrent migraines, one case of chronic abdominal pain due to adhesions, and a case of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).In all four cases, Kampo diagnostics including abdominal palpation helped to identify considerable microcirculatory impairment (oketsu) as the main underlying pathologic condition. Individual Kampo therapy resulted in substantial relief of pain and prevention of recurrent attacks. Concurrently, the general constitution of the patients improved, including sleep, vitality, and appetite.Along with conventional biomedicine, Kampo herbal therapy can provide a comprehensive option not only to ameliorate chronic pain but to improve quality of life and thus to facilitate the overall multimodal management of chronic pain conditions.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call