• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.125-144
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• 2023

Objectives This study aimed to investigate domestic clinical research trends in Shinbaro pharmacopuncture, identify diseases managed using Shinbaro pharmacopuncture, and suggest the direction for future studies to increase its clinical utilization. Methods This study used five steps proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and the PRISMA-extension for scoping reviews checklist. We examined published literature on Shinbaro pharmacopuncture studies reported until June 5, 2023, in the following eight databases (Research Information Sharing Service, Science ON, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, KMBASE, The Society of Internal Korean Medicine, PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library). The search terms used were 'Shinbaro' or 'Sinbaro'. Results A total of 47 studies were included in our analysis. Of these, 37 (78.7%) were interference time series studies. Shinbaro pharmacopuncture was the most frequently used treatment for lumbosacral disease (n=15). In the facial area, ST4 and ST6 were used in five out of six studies, and in the shoulder area, TE14 and LI15 were used in all studies. Nine of the 15 studies in the lumbosacral area used the EX-B2. The other parts mostly used the pressure points. Compared to other pharmacopuncture methods, the treatment effect was similar to that of bee venom, and faster than that of jungsongouhyul. Conclusions This is the first scoping review of Shinbaro pharmacopuncture therapy in South Korea. Studies with a high level of evidence based on sole treatment, large capacities, and standardization of Shinbaro pharmacopuncture need to be conducted to increase its clinical utilization.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.251-263
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to review the clinical research trends in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Korean medicine (KM). Methods: We searched MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, Google Scholar and five Korean databases through May 2019, for studies on KM to treat PTSD. Clinical research that conducted KM treatment of PTSD patients were included. Two researchers independently conducted study selection and data extraction process. Results: Totally, eight studies were included in this review. Types of traumatic events that patients experienced included physical violence/threatening, traffic accidents, sexual violence and personal tragic events. KM interventions performed included acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, physical therapy, and KM-based psychotherapy. Treatment duration varied from two days to more than five months. Follow-up began at least one week to three months after the end of treatments. It was reported that the major psychological and/or somatic symptoms of PTSD, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and musculoskeletal pain, subjectively improved, as well as other objective outcomes: Impact Event Scale-Revised Korean version (IES-R-K), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Hwabyung Symptoms/characters, Electroencephalography (EEG) change, etc. Statistical studies were conducted in three studies only. Outcomes such as Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), BDI, and IES-R-K showed statistically significant improvement after KM treatments. There was no study reporting adverse events during or after the interventions. Conclusions: According to this review, diverse types of KM treatments have been used among PTSD patients in eight studies. The KM treatments effectively improved psychological and somatic symptoms of PTSD patients. However, the lack of high quality research as well as the lack of standardization of KM treatments for PTSD are limitations. Further methodologically robust clinical trials should be performed, and the standardization of KM treatments for PTSD should be sought.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.833-845
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• 2021

Parkinson's syndrome is a degenerative brain disease that presents characteristic motor symptoms of tremor, rigidity, and gait disturbance. In addition to these motor symptoms, Parkinson's syndrome also presents non-motor symptoms (NMSs) such as sleep disturbance and cognitive decline. NMSs reduce patient's quality of life and psychosocial functioning and cause economic burden on the patient, so appropriate evaluation and treatment are required. Lewy body dementia is one of the several diseases belonging to Parkinson's syndrome. Its symptoms such as cognitive function, memory impairment, and hallucinations occur with Parkinsonism. Although drug therapy is being used with drug treatment to treat non-motor symptoms, it has limitations such as side effects, which stimulated interest in other complementary treatment methods such as oriental medicine treatment, dance, and yoga. The patient in this case complained of tremor in the right upper extremity, muscle hypertension and pain, and persistent vision, memory, and cognitive decline. The patient was diagnosed with probable Lewy body dementia. The patient was hospitalized for 4 months and received acupuncture and herbal medicines. After treatment, the patient's NMS scale scores decreased from 90 to 63, and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale scores (summed I, II, and III) decreased from 17 points to 8 points. The Beck Depression Inventory score decreased from 22 points to 13 points. In addition, the patient's subjective evaluation revealed improvement. In this case, a patient diagnosed with probable Lewy body dementia who did not respond to the standard treatment and did not want to take medications showed improvement in not only motor symptoms but also NMSs after integrative Korean medicine treatment.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.375-384
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• 2021

Objective: This study was designed to analyze the clinical features of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients who attended a Korean medicine hospital and the treatment effects through retrospective chart reviews. Methods: The medical records of 82 outpatients who had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and visited the Allergy, Immune, and Respiratory System Department of Kyung Hee Korean Medicine Hospital from 8 January 2015 to 8 January 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. To assess the treatment outcomes, we used the FVC (Forced Vital Capacity), DLCO (Diffusing capacity of the Lung for CO), 6-minute walk test, and HRCT (High Resolution Computed Tomography). Results: The study group consisted of 28 females and 54 males. The median age of the patients was 67.98±11.44 years. The chief complaints were cough (n=51) and dyspnea (n=49). Other frequent symptoms were general weakness (n=8), weight loss (n=4), and a fever (n=2). A total of 77 (93.90%) patients were prescribed Korean herbal medicine, and 52 (63.41%) patients were treated with acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping therapy, ICT, or pharmacopuncture. After treatments, FVC, DLCO, the 6-minute walk test, and HRCT were maintained or worsened slightly. Conclusions: This study presented the characteristics of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients treated by Korean medical therapies, and further studies of Korean medical treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients would be valuable.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.19-32
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• 2022

Objectives This scoping review aimed to investigate the domestic clinical research trends of motion-style acupuncture treatment (MSAT), identify diseases and symptoms for which MSAT is used, summarize specific methods of MSAT, and suggest the direction of future studies. Methods The study was conducted in accordance with a previously specified methodology, using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. We searched nine electronic databases for studies on MSAT reported till March 21, 2022. The search terms were 'kinematic acupuncture,' 'MSAT,' 'motion style acupuncture,' and 'motion style treatment.' Results A total of 29 studies were included in our analyses; of them, 23 (79.3%) were before-after studies. Lumbosacral disease was the most common for which MSAT was applied (n=16). The frequency and duration of treatments differed depending on the researchers, and local acupoints (including ashi points) were used in 22 (75.9%) studies. In most cases, the method of mobilizing the joint or stretching the muscle in the disease area was used after inserting the acupuncture; however, in 7 studies, gait exercise was used. Most studies used MSAT in combination with other treatments. Conclusions This study supports the direction of future research by presenting the methodological applications of MSAT. To increase its clinical applicability, studies with a high level of evidence investigating the application to various body part, standardization and safety of MSAT are necessary.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.90-108
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed to learn what should be considered in the Guidelines of Clinical Trials with Herbal Medicinal Products for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) by analyzing the existing guidelines and clinical trials.Methods: The development committee searched the existing guidelines for herbal medicinal products or GERD. Then, clinical trials related to GERD using herbal medicine were selected. The chosen trials were analyzed in terms of their inclusion and exclusion of participants, intervention, comparators, outcome, and trial design. Then, we compared the results of the analysis according to the regulations and guidelines of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to suggest the issues that we will have to consider when developing the Guidelines of Clinical Trials with Herbal Medicinal Products for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).Results: As a result, few guidelines for GERD and clinical trials with herbal medicinal products were located in the national institution homepage. In addition, 8 articles were found using the following combination of search terms: “Gastroesophageal reflux disease”, “GERD”, “herbal medicine”, “herbal therapy”, “Korean Medicine”, “Traditional Chinese Medicine”, and “TCM”. Even though all trials had their own unique research questions, all studies were performed using a randomization method. Most trials included participants with reflux esophagitis, but two trials targeted proton pump inhibitor-refractory GERD. The type of intervention varied, such as decoction, granules, and capsules. Additionally, individualized herbal medicines were used in two studies. Comparators were diverse, such as placebo, Western medicine, and electro-acupuncture. The most frequently used outcome for efficacy was the effectiveness rate. In addition, the outcome for evaluating quality of life, esophageal mucosa and pressure, esophageal acid reflux, and recurrence rates were used. Safety was investigated by recording adverse events and carrying out laboratory tests.Conclusions: We identified some issues by reviewing the existing guidelines and comparing them with clinical trials for GERD and herbal medicinal products. These results will be utilized for developing the Guidelines of Clinical Trials with Herbal Medicinal Products for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD).

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.101-109
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• 2016

Objectives : HT070 is a mixture of herbal extracts from root of Scutellaria baicalensis and stem bark of Eleutherococcus senticosus , which have long been used for stroke therapy in traditional Korean Medicine. The purpose of this study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of HT070 on global cerebral ischemia and its potential mechanisms.Methods : Transient global cerebral ischemia was produced by 10 min of four-vessel occlusion (4-VO) in male Wistar rats. HT070 was administered orally at a dosage of 200 mg/kg twice at 0 and 90 min after reperfusion. Hippocampal neuronal damage was measured 7 days after reperfusion. To explore the potential mechanisms, we used hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)-induced rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells as an in vitro model. PC12 cells were pretreated with HT070 for 1 h and then exposed to 100 μM H₂O₂ for 6 h in the presence of HT070. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay and the mRNA expression of Bax, Bcl-2, iNOS and COX-2 were measured by quantitative RT-PCR.Results : Oral administration of HT070 at a dose of 200 mg/kg significantly reduced neuronal death in the hippocampal CA1 region by 13.4% as compared to the vehicle-treated group. HT070 increased cell viability, reversed the down-regulated Bcl-2 mRNA level, and suppressed the up-regulated mRNA expressions of Bax, iNOS, and COX-2 in H₂O₂-treated PC12 cells.Conclusions : HT070 protects against delayed neuronal death after global cerebral ischemia and its neuroprotection properties might be attributed to the inhibition of mitochondrial apoptosis and ROS-generating enzymes.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.540-547
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• 2009

There needs disease-predictable signs in order to enable preventive diagnosis and therapy. Then traditional Chinese medicine applies various medical diagnostic equipments used in western medicine to diagnosing sub-healthy state. But such data are not originated from inherent oriental medicine, and not obtained easily in ordinary clinical practice. This paper is to provide synopsis of the ante-disease diagno-therapeutics partly and to show predictable data based on the facial shapes and signs, especially of gall bladder's versus bladder's body and masculine versus feminine shape. Ante-disease means not only the complete healthy state, but also the state unseen any symptoms in macrographically in the course of outbreak of disease. It contains two stages, first one is the former state of disease and second one is untransmitted state of disease. The patterns of ante-disease consist of latent disease, pre-disease, transmission type like senescent syndrome, abnormal reactive syndrome(變證), syndrome of transmission and transmutation. The classification with gall bladder and bladder type manifests the differences of shape, color and size of each organ in comparison of the universal and standard figures of the human being. On the other hand, the classification with masculine and feminine shape contrasts the innate sexual difference and the shape, characteristics originated from in itself. These two classification theories have their own pathologic types and syndrome types with each disease so that disease-predictable data can be constructed based on such a relationship. In addition, this diagnostic method by facial shapes and signs is able to be applied to whole stages from prenatal to present state of disease even if the cause and inducement are not clear. Ante-disease diagno-theraputic system by Gall Bladder's versus Bladder's Body and Masculine versus Feminine Shape is getting more important in the chronic and internal disease in comparison of the acute and traumatic disease. So this study is able to make up for the limit of diagnosis on ante-disease in the field of oriental medicine clinic.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.242-251
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• 2019

Background: Korean Red Ginseng has been widely used in traditional oriental medicine for a prolonged period, and its pharmacological effects have been extensively investigated. In addition, Angelica gigas and deer antlers were also used as a tonic medicine with Korean Red Ginseng as the oriental herbal therapy. Methods: This study was conducted to evaluate the potential toxicological effect of KGC-HJ3, Korean Red Ginseng with angelica gigas and deer antlers, on reproductive and developmental functions including fertility, early embryonic development, maternal function, and embryo-fetal development. KGC-HJ3 was administered by oral gavage to Sprague-Dawley rats (22 animals per sex per group) at dose levels of 0 mg/kg (control), 500 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg, and 2000 mg/kg to evaluate the potential toxicological effect on fertility and early embryonic development. In addition, KGC-HJ3 was also administered by oral gavage to mating-proven Sprague-Dawley rats (22 females per group) during the major organogenesis period at dose levels of 0 mg/kg (control), 500 mg/kg, 1000 mg/kg, and 2000 mg/kg to evaluate the potential toxicological effect on maternal function and embryo-fetal development. Results and conclusion: No test item-related changes in parameters for fertility, early embryonic development, maternal function, and embryo-fetal development were observed during the study period. On the basis of these results, it was concluded that KGC-HJ3 did not have toxicological potential on developmental and reproductive functions. Therefore, no observed adverse effect levels of KGC-HJ3 for fertility, early embryonic development, maternal function, and embryo-fetal development is considered to be at least 2000 mg/kg/day.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2014

Bone homeostasis is maintained by balance between bone resorbing-osteoclasts and bone forming-osteoblasts. Excessive osteoclastic bone resorption plays a critical role in bone destruction in pathological bone diseases such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and periodontal disease. Many compounds derived from natural products have pharmacological applications and have therapeutic value for treating or preventing several bone diseases characterized by excessive bone resorption. To discover new compounds that can act as anti-resorptive agents, we screened for natural compounds that regulate osteclast differentiation, and found that water extract of Ziziphus Jujuba Mill (WEZJ) has inhibitory effects on osteoclast differentiation. In this study, WEZJ clearly inhibits the osteoclast differentiation in the presence of receptor activator of nuclear factor kB (RANKL), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) without cytoxicity by blocking activation of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT)c1, and c-Fos. In signaling pathway, the phosphorylation of Akt, p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK), extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) and the expression of osteoclast-associated receptor (OSCAR), tartrate-resistant acid phosphates (TRAP), Integrin av, Integrin b3, Cathepsin K are suppressed, too. These result suggest that WEZJ may have therapeutic value for treating or preventing several bone diseases characterized by excessive bone destruction.