Influences of Acupuncturing Governor Vessel on Reflux Symptom and Psychological States in Patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncturing governor vessel for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease by observing patients' reflux symptoms and psychological states. METHODS 60 cases with gastroesophageal reflux disease were randomly chosen and then divided into the acupuncture group and western medicine group based on the visiting sequence， with 30 cases in each group. Acupunctures were given to patients in the acupuncture group on back below the spinous processes of T3 to T12(both meridian acupoints and non-meridian acupoints included) on Tuesday， Thursday and Saturday， three times per week， for eight weeks in total. Patients in the western medicine group took omeprazole capsules orally. In addition， they also took one tablet of deanxit per time. Reflux diagnostic questionnaire scores， scores of self-rating anxiety scale and self-rating depression scale of both groups were observed. RESULTS All of these scores in the two groups were much improved than before(P<0.01). After treatment， the scores of the acupuncture group were evidently lower than those of the western medicine group(P<0.05). The markedly effective rate of the acupuncture group was 66.67% (20/30)， which was much higher than 40% (12/30) of the western medicine group， with significant differences when compared with each other(P<0.05). CONCLUSION Both treatment methods are effective， while needling along Du meridian from T3 to T12 segments is more superior in improving the reflux symptoms and psychological states.