Search

Background: Moxibustion is a widely used adjunct therapy within Chinese medicine in many Asian countries, as well as Australia. A variety of diseases are treated with moxibustion as well as a range of application methods used, ranging from moxa roll to warm needle. Few studies have looked at the types of diseases and methods used when administering moxibustion. Method: The clinic database at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Chinese medicine clinic was mined for the type of disease using the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) as well as the most commonly used application methods when moxibustion was applied within a treatment. The period assessed was from January 1998 to December 2014. Results: The six most common disease areas where moxibustion had been administered were in the categories of neurological, digestive, respiratory, musculoskeletal, psychological and general diseases. In total 104,676 treatments had been recorded in the database across these six disease areas with moxibustion being used in 9.3% (n=9,733) of all the recorded treatments in these six disease areas. In addition, the moxa roll was most commonly used (6%) followed by direct moxa (1.3%), moxa box (1.2%) and warm needle (0.8%). Conclusion: More research is needed into the efficacy, safety and underlying mechanism of moxibustion therapy. This will lead to a better understanding of moxibustion and familiarisation by the public of its role in treating a variety of diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association Ltd (AACMA) is the largest national professional body for Chinese medicine practitioners in Australia yet little is known about specific practice characteristics of its members. Method: In December 2006, a four-page questionnaire was mailed to all association members listed on the AACMA database for that year. The questionnaire sought to obtain information on the demographics and practice characteristics of the AACMA members. In total 1 520 questionnaires were mailed out to the AACMA members, of which 386 were returned. Results: The age distribution for respondents was bimodal, with those in the 46-50 and 31-35 brackets being the highest reported ranges. With regard to education, most respondents stated they had obtained their practice qualifications in Australia (n = 279; 73%), while 46 (12%) replied they had received their qualification from overseas. Most respondents replied that they had obtained a Bachelor degree (n = 207; 54%) while 58 (15%) reported having a Diploma and 37 an Advanced Diploma (9%). Concerning practice characteristics, nearly 70% (n = 268) reported that they practised more than 20 hours per week, with significantly more females working fewer than 20 hours compared to males (p = 0.006). When a breakdown of the pattern of modality use was undertaken, approximately 31% (n = 121) of respondents reported using a combination of both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, while 20% (n = 77) stated they used acupuncture solely while only 0.5% (n = 2) used herbal medicine alone. The remainder used various combinations involving acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese remedial massage (Tuina) and/or Western remedial massage. Conclusion: This is the first time a survey of members of a particular Chinese medicine (CM) association has been undertaken in Australia. To further develop CM, a large scale survey needs to be undertaken to further define and establish the social demographics and practices of the newly nationally registered CM profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ethical concerns revolve around the four basic principles of research: merit and integrity, respect for human beings, weighting of risk–benefit and justice. These principles form the basis for any discussion concerning human research ethics and are applicable to all areas of research including acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. World Health Organisation document, Guidelines for Clinical Research on Acupuncture, states that ‘consideration should be given to the different value systems that are involved in human rights such as social, cultural and historical issues’ and that ‘further studies should be conducted in relation to ethical issues involved in clinical research on acupuncture’. In addition to outlining the four basic principles, this paper will also examine the effect of Asian culture on Western human research ethics and how this may impact upon issues such as informed consent and weighting of risk–benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a modern interpretation of Chinese medicine, developed in the 1950s. It differentiates biomedical diseases into patterns. Each pattern comprises symptom/signs that have their own unique treatment protocol. Most TCM research has used fixed formula treatments for Western-defined diseases with outcomes often measured using objective biomedical markers. More recently, a number of trials have attempted to accommodate TCM clinical practice within the framework of rigorous evidence-based medical research. The aim of this article is to describe a novel outcome measure based on TCM patterns that was used in a pilot study for people with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods: Sixteen (16) participants with HCV were enrolled in a randomized, controlled pilot study and allocated to a treatment or control group. TCM pattern diagnosis was obtained at baseline and used to guide acupuncture treatment for the treatment group. Each individual's primary, secondary, and tertiary TCM patterns were identified, which involved the systematic evaluation of the participant's information against the TCM patterns and conversion of the pattern to a percentage. Baseline and postintervention percentages for the three TCM patterns for the two groups were compared to assess change. Results: There was a significant mean percentage decrease in pattern expression at week 12 compared to baseline for the secondary and tertiary patterns of the treatment group (56.3% versus 47.5%; p = 0.045 and 48.1% versus 33.6%; p = 0.037, respectively). No significant change was found for the primary, secondary, or tertiary patterns for the control group or for the primary pattern associated with the treatment group. Conclusions: The quantification of TCM patterns in this study permitted statistical evaluation of TCM pattern change. Previously, TCM pattern identification had only been used as a basis for developing the treatment protocol in clinical trials. This is the first time it has been employed as a novel outcome measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To examine the reliability of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tongue inspection by evaluation of inter- and intrapractitioner agreement levels for specific tongue characteristics, achieved by a group of TCM practitioners. Method: Ten (10) realistic tongue slides and a set of questionnaires were used to examine the agreement levels among 30 TCM practitioners in two data collection sessions. Statistical analysis involved descriptive statistics, predominantly percentage frequency agreement with the agreement level of ≥80% set as the criterion for an acceptable level of reliability. Results: Overall, both inter- and intrapractitioner agreement levels were low. Only on 19 occasions (17.3%) in session 1 and 21 occasions (19.1%) in session 2 were interpractitioner (between a practitioner) agreement levels of ≥80% achieved. Moreover, virtually all (15 occasions in session 1 and 14 occasions in session 2) of these questions involved simple dichotomous response choices, and the practitioners achieved levels of ≥80% reliability in only 5% of occasions where more complex response choices were offered. In terms of intrapractitioner (within a practitioner) agreement, the highest agreement level was achieved for the dichotomous response choice questions on presence of coat and presence of crack, with the 29 and 20 practitioners achieving ≥80% intrapractitioner agreement, respectively. Only 2 subjects achieved higher than 80% intrapractitioner agreement level for all tongue slides on all questions, with the highest intrapractitioner agreement level being 88% followed by 82%. The findings showed that the TCM tongue inspection for specific characteristics examined was not a reliable diagnostic method, at least for the group of TCM practitioners involved in this study. Conclusions: The findings suggest that a major contribution to the low levels of inter- and intrapractitioner agreements stems from inadequate operational definitions of both the tongue characteristics studied and of the inspection regions of the tongue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response by Christine A. Berle and colleagues to a letter to the editor regarding their article "A novel approach to evaluate Traditional Chinese Medicine outcomes using pattern identification" in the 2010 issue is presented.