Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei.
Climacteric. 2009 Dec;12(6):541-7. doi: 10.3109/13697130903060081.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has become more popular as a therapy for symptom relief among menopause-aged women. The aim of this study was to analyze the utilization of TCM for climacteric women in Taiwan.
The study analyzed frequency distributions among 19 379 women aged 45-55 years, recruited from a random-sampled cohort of 200 000 people from the National Health Insurance database. Data mining was conducted to explore the co-prescription patterns for finished herbal products (FHP).
There were 19 379 women aged 45-55 years in the sample; of these, 12 572 (64.9%) utilized TCM services at least once. A total of 4078 (21.0%) of the 19 379 climacteric women utilized 145 200 (79.2%) TCM visits. Of these, 39 802 (21.7%) visits were because of diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, of which more than half were treated with acupuncture and traumatology manipulative therapies. There were 28 154 visits with FHP prescriptions because of non-specific symptoms and ill-defined conditions, and Jia-wei-xiao-yao-san was the most frequent formula. Nearly two-thirds of FHP contained more than two herbal formulae.
Women of climacteric age in Taiwan utilized TCM more often than other age groups. To deal with multiple symptoms and/or diseases among climacteric women, new prescription patterns of combining two or more herbal formulae have evolved. Studies on safety issues and drug-herb interactions are warranted for future research.
传统中医药（TCM）作为缓解更年期女性症状的疗法越来越受欢迎。本研究旨在分析台湾更年期女性使用 TCM 的情况。
本研究对来自国家健康保险数据库的 20 万人随机抽样队列中 45-55 岁的 19379 名女性进行了频率分布分析。通过数据挖掘探讨了成品草药（FHP）的联合用药模式。
样本中共有 19379 名 45-55 岁的女性；其中 12572 名（64.9%）至少使用过一次 TCM 服务。19379 名更年期女性中，共有 4078 名（21.0%）共进行了 145200 次（79.2%）TCM 就诊。其中 39802 次（21.7%）就诊是由于肌肉骨骼系统和结缔组织疾病，其中一半以上是通过针灸和骨伤推拿疗法治疗的。有 28154 次就诊是因为非特异性症状和定义不明确的情况，最常用的方剂是加味逍遥散。近三分之二的 FHP 含有两种以上的草药方剂。
台湾更年期女性比其他年龄段的女性更常使用 TCM。为了应对更年期女性的多种症状和/或疾病，已经出现了联合使用两种或更多草药方剂的新处方模式。未来的研究需要对安全性问题和药物-草药相互作用进行研究。
