Clinical study on acupuncture with the Shu-Mu point combination method combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of spleen-deficiency type irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a syndrome related to altered gastrointestinal function, whose main symptoms are chronic or recurrent abdominal pain, diarrhea, and abnormal bowel habits and stool form, without structural or biochemical abnormalities of the gastrointestinal tract; it often coexists with other functional gastrointestinal disorders such as gastroesophageal reflux disease and functional dyspepsia. OBJECTIVE: To explore the theoretical basis of acupuncture with the Shu-Mu point combination method combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of spleen-deficiency type IBS, and to observe its effect on clinical efficacy and quality of life in patients with spleen-deficiency type IBS. METHODS: Sixty patients with spleen-deficiency type IBS meeting the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group. The treatment group (30 cases) received acupuncture with the Shu-Mu point combination method combined with the Chinese herbal formula Shenling Baizhu San, using electroacupuncture with a sparse-dense wave (sparse wave 4 Hz, dense wave 70 Hz) and needle retention for 30 min. The control group (30 cases) received Shenling Baizhu San only; the course of treatment was 4 weeks. The effects of the two treatments on clinical efficacy and quality of life of patients with spleen-deficiency type IBS were observed before and after treatment. RESULTS: 1. Before treatment, there were no significant differences between the treatment and control groups in sex, age, disease duration, main symptoms or quality-of-life scores (p>0.05). 2. After treatment, all main symptoms within each group differed significantly from before treatment (p<0.05), indicating that both treatment regimens were effective; after treatment, abdominal pain, abdominal distension, stool frequency and sensation of incomplete evacuation differed significantly between the two groups (p<0.05), and the clinical efficacy of the treatment group was higher than that of the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in stool form and mucous stool (p<0.05). The total clinical effective rate was 86.67% in the treatment group and 70.00% in the control group, with a significant difference by ridit analysis (p<0.05); the combined analysis of clinical symptom scores and clinical effective rate suggested that the treatment group regimen was clearly superior to the control group in improving abdominal pain, abdominal distension, stool frequency and sensation of incomplete evacuation. 3. Comparison of syndrome scores before and after treatment within groups showed that both groups improved patients' quality of life (p<0.05); after treatment the treatment group differed from the control group (p<0.05), suggesting that the treatment group was superior in improving patients' overall symptoms. 4. Comparison of quality-of-life scale scores before and after treatment within groups showed that both groups improved patients' quality of life (p<0.05); after treatment the treatment group differed from the control group (p<0.05), suggesting that the treatment group was superior in improving patients' quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncture with the Shu-Mu point combination method combined with Chinese herbal medicine in patients with spleen-deficiency type IBS can markedly improve clinical symptoms and quality of life and achieve good clinical efficacy; its efficacy is clearly superior to Chinese herbal medicine alone.