Objective:

2

To investigate the effects and safety of catgut embedding on alleviating insomnia.

Methods:

2

Totally 510 patients with insomnia were divided into 5 Chinese medicine (CM) syndrome types: Xin (Heart) and Pi (Spleen) deficiency

yin deficiency with excess fire

Xin and gut qi deficiency

Wei (Stomach) disorder

and qi and blood deficiency

respectively. These 5 types of patients were randomly assigned to a catgut embedding group

an acupuncture group or a medication group (30 cases in Xin and Pi deficiency type

Wei disorder type

Xin and gut qi deficiency type

respectively; 40 cases in yin deficiency with excess fire type and qi and blood deficiency type

respectively). In the catgut embedding group

patients were treated by implanting catgut into acupoints once every 10 days for a total of 30 days. In the acupuncture group

patients were treated with acupuncture once per day over 30 days (excluding weekends); and patients in the medication group took 1 mg Eurodin Tablet orally every night for 30 days. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was evaluated before treatment

on 30 and 60 days after the first treatment

respectively. The International Unified Sleep Efficiency Value (IUSEV) was measured at 30 and 60 days. The safety was evaluated after treatment and adverse events were analyzed.

Results:

2

The objective PSQI scores including subjective sleep quality

sleep latency

sleep duration

habitual sleep efficiency

sleep disturbance

daytime dysfunction

and total scores at 30 days were significantly improved compared with pre-treatment in the catgut embedding and acupuncture groups (

P

<

0.01 or

P

<

0.05). At 30 days

the PSQI scores in catgut embedding group were superior to the medication group in the patients with each type of insomnia

with the exception of sleep duration (

P

<

0.01 or

P

<

0.05). At 60 days

significant differences were found between the catgut embedding group and the medication group (

P

<

0.01 for all indices). The IUSEV scores in the catgut embedding group were significantly higher than the acupuncture group at 60 days

and the scores in acupuncture group were higher than the medication group at 30 days (

P

<

0.05 for all types). No severe adverse events were found in this study.

Conclusions:

2

Acupoint catgut embedding and acupuncture were more effective than medication in alleviating insomnia syndrome in different Chinese medicine syndrome type. However

the sustained effects of acupoint catgut embedding were superior to acupuncture.