Abstract
We studied retrospectively the result of Kampo medicine for 29 patients (three males and twenty-nine females with average age of 65.7 years old) with glossodynia by the treatment protocol under traditional diagnosis. Their median contraction period was eight months (0.5-144 months). The target symptoms were mental illnesses in sixteen patients, tongue pain in five patients, oral dryness and depletion of zinc in three patients, and the others in two patients. We administered only Kampo medicine to ten patients with no treatment in the former clinics and continued the former medicines in nineteen patients with Kampo medicine. And we changed Kampo medicine or added western drugs to non-responded patients. Their treatment period was 10.9 months on average. Glossodynia improved in twelve patients remarkably (42%), improved in eleven patients slightly (38%), did not change in four patients (14%), ameliorated in one patient (3%) and could not be followed in one patient (3%). Effective treatment were Kampo medicine in eighteen patients (62%), zinc drug in three patients (10%), both medicines in one patient and vitamin B drug was in one patient (3%). Some modification might be needed in our psychiatric treatment because improvement was less in patients with mood disorder and patients with somatoform disorder.
