A Survey of Application of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Chinese Patients with Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and spectrum of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) application and its related-factors in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients in China.

Methods: A structured questionnaire regarding the use of CAMs was administered to PD patients by face-to-face interview. Demographic and social variables, clinical characteristics and treatments, and the related factors of PD were also surveyed.

Results: Ninety out of 113 patients (79.6%) reported that they had received CAMs treatment, of which 48.6% (55/113) patients had received CAMs treatment for PD. The top 3 kinds of CAMs for PD were Chinese materia medica, rehabilitation exercise, and acupuncture ordinally. The source of information regarding CAMs treatment mainly came from relatives and friends (51.8%, 73 cases), followed by physicians (31.9%, 45 cases), and medias such as television, newspapers or the internet (16.3%, 28 cases). Fifty percent of CAM users reported a good therapeutic efficacy, whereas 39% patients reported that they felt neither better nor worse after the treatment, while 11% patients claimed worsening of symptoms. Multiple correspondence analyses survey found the main factors affecting the selectivity of CAMs ranked in the following order: income, education, occupation, habitation, age at onset, Hoehn and Yahr staging, PD duration, and gender.

Conclusion: CAMs, especially Chinese materia medica, rehabilitation exercise, and acupuncture, are widely used for PD patients in China.

Keywords: Chinese medicine; Parkinson’s disease; complementary and alternative medicine.