A Review on Professor Dong Xiang- yu's treatment philosophy on using classical prescriptions in treating insomnia

Objective: This paper introduces Professor Dong Xiangyu's experience in treating insomnia with classical prescription. Dong believes that insomnia is a clinical symptom of many psychosomatic diseases and its cause is mainly the imbalance of Yin and Yang in the human body. To investigate the etiology from the aspects of deficiency syndrome and empirical evidence,he emphasizes on the treatment principle of discharge the excessive and supplement the inadequate,balance Yin and Yang,and proposed a classification system for different types of insomnia. He applied the methods ofbalancing Yin-Yang,supporting spleen and stomach,nourishing yin and tonifying kidney,liver and clearing heatin the treatment,with particular applications of harmonic,tonic,nourishing Yin and the Quxie method.