A Case of the Night Owl and Cancer Pain of Patient with Advanced Cancer Successfully Treated with Kampo

Abstract

Night owl is one of the painful symptoms for cancer patients. Patients with advanced cancer, who tend to bed on bed rest, often sleep during the day and are awake at night, especially. Night owl may make worse the QOL of patients. We controlled night owl and cancer pain of a patient with advanced cancer by treatment with Kampo, Japanese herbal medicine. The case was a 53-year-old female patient with metastatic head and neck cancer. She tended to be a night owl. So, we administered maobushisaishinto and keishikaryukotsuboreito to her, because we regarded her as qi obstruction. During the night, she was able to sleep successfully. After that, administration of hainosankyuto and bukuryoingohangekobokuto reduced the use of rescue medication. Moreover, Kampo was useful for pain control.