Acupuncture
treatment alleviated many non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s including pain,
depression, anxiety, hot flashes and paroxysmal sweating in a patients with
Parkinson’s. This is a case report published in the journal of Case Reports of
Neurological Medicine.
Non-motor
symptoms occur in virtually all patients with Parkinson’s. Non-motor symptoms
range from autonomic dysfunction, psychiatric disorders, sensory symptoms,
gastrointestinal syndromes and many others. Acupuncture is very effective in
relieving many non-motor symptoms without side-effect.
Recently
Dr. Iseki and colleagues in Japan used acupuncture to treat multiple non-motor
symptoms of a patient with PD. An 81-year-old woman with a 5-year history of
right-dominant lower leg pain was admitted into the hospital. Although she was
prescribed various kinds of pain killers her pain was not satisfactorily relieved.
She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 3 year ago due to her mask-like face and
bradykinesia and around that time suffered from severe hot flashes and
paroxysmal sweating which was not associated with the levodopa treatment. The
patient was given acupuncture treatment 5 times per week for 2 weeks.
Assessments including Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain, Hamilton Depression
Scale (HAM-D) for depression and the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale
(UPDRS) score were performed before and after acupuncture treatment.
It
was found that immediately after every acupuncture session patient felt that
her legs had become light. Two weeks after acupuncture her lower leg pain
became milder. VAS scores were markedly reduced. The daily attack of hot
flashes and paroxysmal sweating were decreased to about three time a week.
Depression and anxiety were obviously lessened and HAM-D scores reduced from 18
to 9. The UPDRS total score reduced from 59 to 46. Her steps became larger and
her bradykinesia was improved.
This
is another report showing that acupuncture is beneficial to PD patients
suffering from both non-motor and motor symptoms.
Reference
Iseki C et al., Acupuncture Alleviated the Nonmotor Symptoms
of Parkinson's Disease including Pain, Depression, and Autonomic Symptoms. Case
Rep Neurol Med. 2014;2014:953109. doi: 10.1155/2014/953109. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crinm/2014/953109/
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