Patients with Parkinson Disease in a Traditional Korean Medicine Hospital: A Five-Year Audit

Jung Yun Yang; Chul Jin; JiEun Lee; Han-Gyul Lee; Seung-Yeon Cho; Seong-Uk Park; Woo-Sang Jung; Sang-Kwan Moon; Jung-Mi Park; Chang-Nam Ko; Ki-Ho Cho; Seungwon Kwon

doi:10.1155/2021/6842863

Patients with Parkinson Disease in a Traditional Korean Medicine Hospital: A Five-Year Audit

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Jan 12:2021:6842863. doi: 10.1155/2021/6842863. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology and Neurology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Korean Medicine Cardiology and Neurology, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Parkinson disease (PD) patients' demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has thus been increasing. We investigated the characteristics of PD patients who visited the Korean Medicine Hospital, the official CAM clinic in Korea. The medical records of PD patients were reviewed retrospectively. The demographic and disease-related characteristics, motivation for visiting, and treatment modalities were collected and analyzed. Medical records from 618 patients were reviewed. Most patients (67.6%) had been already diagnosed with PD at the initial visit. The most frequent complaint was gait disturbance. Previously diagnosed patients visited most frequently for add-on CAM therapies. The most frequently used CAM therapy was acupuncture. The most frequently prescribed herbal medicine was modified Ukgansan. We found the main reason for seeking out CAM was to compensate for the effects of conventional therapies. Further prospective studies will be necessary to collect enough data and evaluate the effectiveness of CAM therapies.