Hwangryunhaedogtang (Huanglianjiedutang) Treatment for Pathological Laughter after Stroke and Importance of Patterns Identification: A Preliminary Study
Abstract
This study was to test the importance of patterns identification (PI) and the effectiveness of Hwangryunhaedogtang (Huanglianjiedutang) (HT) treatment for patients with post stroke pathological laughter (PL). Fourteen subjects were enrolled. Eight subjects diagnosed with Yang Excess patterns (YEP) were assigned into group A and 6 subjects who had no YEP to group B. HT was administrated 3 times a day for 14 days to both groups. The duration of PL at one time, the frequency of PL in a day, and pathological laughter scale (PLS) were the primary outcome measures. Barthel index (BI) was the secondary outcome measure. The duration and the frequency of PL in group A were significantly decreased from 10.88 ± 4.67 to 6.63 ± 4.07 sec and from 6.38 ± 2.72 to 3.00 ± 1.77 times, respectively (p = 0.01) after 14 days administration of HT. PLS in group A was also significantly lowered from 9.13 ± 1.73 to 4.75 ± 0.71 points (p = 0.01). However, significant differences were not observed in BI in group A and in the primary and secondary outcome measures in group B. The duration and the frequency of PL and PLS were more markedly reduced in group A than in group B (p = 0.01, 0.02, and < 0.01, respectively). These results suggested that HT could be effective on subjects with post stroke PL diagnosed as YEP and PI, that prescription of herbal medications to such patients should be considered.
