A Case Report of Fibromyalgia Successfully Treated with Kampo Medicine

Abstract

We report a case of a 38-year-old woman who initially had pain in her entire left leg and then began to feel intense pain everywhere in her body. She visited our Kampo clinic because of a poor response to the various drugs prescribed by six doctors over two years. We made the diagnosis of fibromyalgia and suggested Kampo therapy with decoction. We focused on liver qi depression, blood deficiency, and blood stasis because she had symptoms of dry skin, cold feet, deeply located fine pulses, purple tongue with thick yellow fur, fullness in her chest and hypochondrium, and pain on palpation beside her umbilicus. Therefore, we prescribed a keppuchikuoto modified formula with poor effect. Finally, we thought this might be caused by a liver-kidney yin deficiency because she had long-term symptoms and administered a dokkatsukiseito modified formula. Her symptoms markedly improved after taking this formulation. Some cases of fibromyalgia are resistant to standard Western treatments. Kampo medicine may be useful and provide relief in such cases.