柴朴湯を用いた咽喉頭異常感症の治療

抄録

Without following the traditional diagnostic procedure based on oriental medicine, we administered an oral Kampo (traditional Chinese herbal) medicine, Tsumura Saiboku-to (7.5g/day), daily for 2 weeks to 108 patients with abnormal sensation in the throat, such as a lump or choking.
After excluding 8 patients, 4 with unpleasant side effects and 4 who discontinued the medication, we evaluated the efficacy at the end of the first and second week of administration and one week after the termination of treatment in 38 males and 62 females. The medicine was considered to be very effective when the abnormal sensation improved subjectively by 80% or more, moderately effective if improvement was 50% to 80%, slightly effective if it was 30% to 50% and not effective if less than 300.
The respective effectiveness rates were 22%, 32%, 11% and 35% at the end of the first week; and 35%, 33%, 12% and 20% at the end of the second weed; and 43%, 30%, 7% and 20% at the end of the third week. Further analysis of the data suggests that this medicine is more effective for females than males, for younger patients and those over 50, for non-drinking than habitually drinking patients, for those not previously treated, for those without cancer phobia, for those treated within one month after the start of abnormal sensation, for those with the sensation higher in the pharynx, and for those with lower neurotic scores on psychological tests.
Side effects were reported by 6 (6%), 4 of whom stopped the medication: 4 had gastrointestinal symptoms and 2 had dry mouth and/or throat.
From the point of view of western medicine, the effectiveness of Saiboku-to on abnormal sensation in the throat is good enough. It would probably be even better if administered after a selection based on diagnosis according to the concepts of oriental medicine.