Introduction: Chronic urticaria (CU) is characterized by repeated occurrence of wheals or itching for more than 6 weeks. When urticarial symptoms repeatedly occur despite taking western medicines such as antihistamines, herbal medicines have potential as an alternative for them. Among various herbal medications for CU, we mostly prescribe Gwakhyangjeonggi-san (GJS) made by Lee Je-ma, the founder of Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM) in Korea. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether GJS actually helps in treating CU.
Methods: We performed a retrospective review of the medical records of 30 patients to whom GJS was administered in order to compare the changes in urticaria activity scores (UAS) and in western medicines taken at the beginning of treatment of GJS and at 6 months after completion of the treatment.
Results: The UAS after 6 months from treatment (1.63 ± 2.06) with GJS for an average of 57.30 ± 35.88 days was significantly decreased compared to the score before treatment (5.10 ± 0.99), showing a statistically significant difference (p< 0.001). 46.67% of the patients (14/30 patients) reported that their symptoms were completely eliminated, and 66.67% of the patients taking anti-histamines (18/27 patients) were able to stop it completely.
Discussion: Based on the findings, GJS helps patients reduce taking western medicines such as anti-histamines, and we hypothesize that GJS improves symptoms of CU by the gastrointestinal protective activity and anti-oxidative/depressive effect. Further clinical study is warranted.
Keywords: Chronic urticaria; Gwakhyangjeonggi-san; Herbal medicine; Sasang Constitutional medicine.
Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.