Objective To investigate the general state, psychologic status and health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), and explore the influencing factors on HRQOL and their major and minor relationship. Methods From August 2014 to August 2015, a questionnaire survey was conducted to patients with PHN. The data of the patients’ general situation was colleted, the psychologic status was assessed by Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the HRQOL of the patients was assessed by 36-item Short Form Survey. One-way ANOVA and stepwise regression analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of HRQOL. Results A total of 177 questionnaires were issued, and 158 were recovered with a response rate of 89.3%. The average score of HRQOL of the 158 patients was 513.67±119.79, and the average score of SDS was 43.65±11.34. SDS scores showed no depression in 41 patients (25.9%), mild depression in 47 (29.7%), moderate depression in 39 (24.8%), and severe depression in 31 (19.6%). Whether receiving regular treatment, course of PHN, SDS score, physical exercise, sleep time and age were the main influencing factors of HRQOL. Conclusions Most patients with PHN suffer from depressive symptoms with poor HRQOL scores. Receiving early treatment with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine, strengthening exercise, ensuring adequate sleep and receiving psychological counseling can significantly improve the HRQOL of PHN patients.
Background Hepatitis B is one of the major infectious diseases of mankind, and up to now, there is no effective way to handle it. Recent clinical trials have shown the potential advantages of Kurorinone an extract of Chinese herb, in treament of chronic HBV infection. Objectives Systermically review the safety and efficacy of Kurorinone in treatment of chronic HBV infection. Search strategy With the searching terms including Kurorinone, its products’ name, hepatitis B and chronic carrier status, the trials registers of the Cochrane Hepato- Biliary Group, the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field, and the central database of the Cochrane Library as well as MEDILINE, EMBASE and Chinese Biomedical CD Database were searched from their date of inception onward. 20 Chinese medical journals and relevant academic conference proceedings have been searched by hand. The reference lists of identified documents were checked as the complementary search. Inclusion Criteria All RCTs that tested Kurorinone for chronic HBV infection were included in this review. Method of the review According the demand of Cochrane systematic review, selection of trial for inclusion, assessment of methodological quality, data extraction and data syntheses would be conducted for each included trial.
Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicinal herbs for asymptomatic hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection. Data Source The trials registers of the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group, the Cochrane Library and the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field were searched in combination with MEDLINE, EMBASE, and handsearches of Chinese journals and conference proceedings. Data Selection Randomized clinical trials with 3 months follow-up comparing Chinese medicinal herbs versus placebo, no intervention, non-specific treatment, or interferon treatment for asymptomatic HBV carriers were included. No language and blinding limitations were applied. Data Extraction Data were extracted independently by two reviewers. The methodological quality of trials was assessed by the Jadad-scale plus allocation concealment. Results Three randomized clinical trials (307 patients) with low methodological quality following patients for three months or more after the end of treatment were included. Herbal compound Jianpi Wenshen recipe showed significant effects on clearance of HBV markers compared to interferon: relative risk 2.40 (95 % CI 1.01 to 5.72) for clearance of serum HBsAg, and 2.54 (1.13 to 5.70) for seroconversion of HBeAg to anti-HBe. Phyllanthus amarus and Astragalus membranaceus showed no significant antiviral effect compared with placebo. Analysis of pooling eight randomized clinical trials with less than three months follow-up did not show a significant benefit of Chinese medicinal herbs on viral markers. No serious adverse event was observed. Conclusions There is insufficient evidence for treatment of asymptomatic HBVcarriers using Chinese medicinal herbs due to the low quality of the trials. Further randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trials are needed.
Objective To assess the quality reports on acupuncture in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia. Methods MEDLINE, CBM, CMCC and CNKI from 1994 to 2006 were searched electronically. Handsearching was also done. The retrieved articles were assessed in terms of several factors, including the type of clinical research, methodology, diagnostic criteria, inclusion/exclusion criteria, effectiveness measurements, calculation of sample size, follow-up, etc. Results Among the 109 included articles, only 6 were true randomized controlled trials. There were 17 quasi-randomized controlled trials, 13 non-randomized concurrent controlled trials, 1 case-control study and 63 narrative studies. 29 of the reports clearly described the diagnostic criteria, 14 mentioned the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 79 reported the effectiveness measurements, none mentioned the calculation of sample size, 24 reported the follow-up outcomes, and only 1 mentioned adverse reactions. Conclusion More prospective, multicenter, large-scale, high-quality randomised trials are needed, and recommendations should also be made for future evaluations of methodological quality.
Objective To compare the effect of different doses of compound betamethasone intradermal block on post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) in elderly patients. Methods Between June 2013 and December 2014, 96 elderly patients who matched the criteria of PHN were chosen and randomly divided into saline control group (group C), compound betamethasone 0.5 mL group (group B0.5) and compound betamethasone 1.0 mL group (group B1.0). For the control group, 20 mL analgesic saline liquid including 5 mL of 2% lidocaine was used. And 0.5 and 1.0 mL compound betamethasone was added into the solution of group C to get the solution for group B0.5 and group B1.0, respectively. The patients got intracutaneous injection once in the affected area on the day 1, 8, and 15 respectively, and patients in the same group were injected the same solution of analgesic liquid. All the patients took the same medicine during treatment. Their visual analog scale (VAS) scores, quality of sleep (QS) scores and adverse events before treatment (T0), at discharging from the hospital (T1), and three months after discharging (T2) were carefully noted and analyzed. Results The VAS and QS scores of the three groups at T1 and T2 improved significantly compared with those at T0 (P < 0.05). The VAS and QS scores of group B0.5 and group B1.0 improved significantly more compared with group C (P < 0.05), and the difference of VAS and QS scores between group B0.5 and group B1.0 was not statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). Conclusions Adding 0.5 mL or 1 mL of compound betamethasone to the 20 mL analgesic liquid for intradermal block treatment on PHN can obviously release patients’ pain and improve their sleep quality. Compared with 1 mL, adding 0.5 mL compound betamethasone to the 20 mL analgesic liquid for intradermal block treatment on PHN is a more ideal dose.