UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Int J Gen Med. 2008 Nov 30;1:3-6. doi: 10.2147/ijgm.s3670.
Polypharmacy is a common and serious problem in the elderly today. Few solutions have been effective in reducing its incidence.
An 87-year-old female with a history of osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis presented with a five month history of severe right hip pain. She had been seen by multiple specialists and hospitalized many times. During these encounters, she was prescribed a long list of pain medications. However, these medications did not improve her pain and added to her risk of adverse drug events. After exhausting traditional Western medical therapies, she received a referral to the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine. There, clinicians treated her with a nonpharmacological integrative East-West medicine approach that included acupuncture, dry needling of trigger points, and education on self-acupressure. Her pain began improving and she was able to cut back on analgesic use under physician supervision. Ultimately, she improved to the point where she was able to discontinue all of her pain medications. Symptomatic relief was evidenced by improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
This case study suggests that integrative East-West medicine may have the potential to reduce the incidence of polypharmacy in elderly patients presenting with pain conditions and improve their quality of life.
今天，老年人普遍存在且严重的问题是多种药物治疗。很少有解决方案能有效地降低其发病率。
一位 87 岁的女性，患有骨关节炎和脊柱狭窄症，病史 5 个月，出现严重的右侧髋部疼痛。她已经看过多位专家，并多次住院。在这些就诊中，她被开了一长串的止痛药。然而，这些药物并没有改善她的疼痛，反而增加了她发生药物不良反应的风险。在尝试了传统的西方医学治疗方法后，她被转介到 UCLA 东西医学中心。在那里，临床医生采用非药物的整合东西方医学方法为她治疗，包括针灸、触发点干针和自我按压的教育。她的疼痛开始改善，并且在医生的监督下能够减少止痛药的使用。最终，她的疼痛得到了缓解，以至于她能够停止所有的止痛药。健康相关生活质量（HRQOL）的改善证明了症状的缓解。
本病例研究表明，整合东西方医学可能有潜力降低因疼痛就诊的老年患者多种药物治疗的发生率，并改善他们的生活质量。
