[Effect of "tranquilization needling" on the sleep quality in patients with insomnia of heart-spleen deficiency type]

Abstract

Objective: To observe the effect of "Tranquilization Needling" (TN) and acupuncture of "Eight Confluence Acupoints" (ECA) on Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in patients with insomnia of the deficiency type of both heart and spleen.

Methods: A total of 60 insomnia patients with the deficiency of both heart and spleen were randomly divided into TN group and ECA group. For patients of TN group, Sishencong (EX-HN 1), Shenmen (HT 7) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6) were punctured, and for those of ECA group, Shenmai (BL 62) and Zhaohai (KI 6) were punctured, once daily for 40 sessions. The PSQI score was used to assess the changes of the patients' sleeping quality.

Results: After the treatment, of the two 30 cases of TN group and ECA group, 12 (40.0%) and 7 (23.3%) were cured, 11 (36.7%) and 10 (33.3%) experienced marked improvement, 5 (16.6%) and 8 (26.7%) had an improvement, and 2 (6.7%) and 5 (16.7%) failed, with the total effective rates being 93.3% and 83.3% respectively. The effective rate of TN group was significantly higher than that of ECA group (P < 0.05). Self-comparison showed that PSOI scores of the sleeping quality, ramp duration, sleep efficiency and the total PSQI score in these two groups all declined significantly after the treatment (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), and the scores of ramp duration and the total PSQI score of TN group were evidently lower than those of ECA group (P < 0.05). After the treatment, the integrative scores of symptoms of two groups both decreased significantly (P < 0.01), and the integrative score of TN group was remarkably lower than that of ECA group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Both TN and acupuncture of ECA can effectively improve insomnia patients' clinical symptoms, and the therapeutic effect of TN is more effective than that of ECA in shortening ramp duration and the total PSQI score.