Clinical Observations on Treatment of General Anxiety Disorder by Combination of Acupuncture and Medicine

Objective To investigate the efficacy of depressed liver-relieving and vexation-removing herbal medicine plus acupuncture for treating general anxiety disorder.Methods A treatment group of 40 cases was treated with acupuncture plus herbal medicine and a control group of 38 cases,with oral Doxepin.The curative effects were evaluated by the Self-rating Anxiety Scale(SAS) and the Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale(TESS) before,during and after treatment.Results The total efficacy rate was 82.50% in the treatment group and 84.21% in the control group.There was a significant difference in SAS in both groups(P0.01).There were no significant differences in cure and marked efficacy rate,total efficacy rate and SAS between the two groups(P0.05),but the side effect was more serious in the control group than in the treatment group(P0.01).Conclusion Acupuncture plus herbal medicine has an exact curative effect on general anxiety disorder with mild toxic side effects.