Is Suanzaoren Decoction effective in treating anxiety?

Suanzaoren Decoction is a soup for treating anxiety. It is a traditional Chinese medicine decoction. It mainly uses some Chinese patent medicines such as sour jujube seed, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, and Poria cocos. This medicine has a certain effect of promoting sleep, can relieve the patient's physical symptoms, and can have a calming effect on the mind. By using sour jujube seed soup combined with gardenia drum soup for treatment, it was found that the effect was quite good and the effect was quite satisfactory.

Treatment

The treatment group was given Suanzaoren Decoction combined with Zhizishi Decoction, which consisted of 15g Suanzaoren, 12g Anemarrhena, 15g Poria, 10g Chuanxiong, 10g Gardenia, 6g Douchi, 6g Chanyi, and 6g Zhigancao. Decoction each dose twice, take about 500ml of juice in total, take it once during lunch break and before going to bed at night, for a total of 4 weeks.

The control group was given 1 mg of lorazepam tablets (produced by Hunan Dongting Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) half an hour before bedtime every night for 4 weeks. During the treatment, do not use other sedatives and hypnotic drugs, and do not consume stimulants such as tobacco, alcohol, strong tea, coffee, etc. Both groups of patients underwent SAS assessment before treatment and after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. Comprehensive clinical efficacy evaluation was performed 2 and 4 weeks after treatment. At the same time, 30 cases in each group were randomly selected for polysomnography (PSG) monitoring after treatment.

Effects of sour jujube kernel soup

Insomnia, also known as "insomnia", "inability to sleep" and "night sleep" in traditional Chinese medicine. "Lingshu Dahuo Lun" said, "The Wei Qi cannot enter the Yin and always stays as Yang. If it stays in the Yang, the Yang Qi will be full, and if the Yang Qi is full, the Yang Qiao will be prosperous. If it cannot enter the Yin, the Yin Qi will be deficient, so the eyes cannot close. Lin Peiqin of the Qing Dynasty said in "Lei Zheng Zhi Cai Insomnia", "When the Yang Qi moves automatically and then becomes quiet, one will sleep; when the Yang Qi moves naturally and then becomes active, one will wake up. Insomnia is caused by the failure of the Yang to communicate with the Yin. "That is, the evil disturbs the mind, the Yin deficiency makes the mind unnourished, and the Yin and Yang are not in harmony, which is the key pathogenesis of insomnia. In particular, anxiety insomnia is often accompanied by irritability, hot flashes, dry mouth, etc., which are mostly Yin deficiency and fire excess in traditional Chinese medicine.

Suanzaoren Decoction comes from the sixth chapter of "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber" on the symptoms and treatment of blood stasis and asthenia. This prescription is composed of Chinese jujube seeds, Chuanxiong, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Poria cocos, and Licorice. It is mainly used to nourish blood and calm the mind. It also has a therapeutic effect on yin deficiency, internal heat, and insomnia caused by deficiency heat and restlessness. However, the symptoms of anxiety-induced insomnia, restlessness and irritability are more severe, and the yin deficiency often contains real fire, so the effect of simple sour jujube seed soup is not enough. Adding gardenia and fermented black bean soup to clear away heat and relieve restlessness, eliminate anxiety and irritability, and feel at peace, the effect is more obvious.

The results of this clinical study showed that Suanzaoren Decoction combined with Zhizishi Decoction can significantly reduce the SAS score of patients with anxiety insomnia, significantly prolong the total sleep time, REM time, SWS time, and reduce the number of awakenings. There was no significant difference in the efficacy between the two groups after 2 weeks of treatment, while after 4 weeks of treatment, the efficacy of the treatment group was significantly better than that of the control group. This shows that the combination of sour jujube kernel decoction and gardenia and fermented black pepper decoction not only has the effect of significantly promoting sleep onset and improving sleep quality, but also has a significant improvement on insomnia-related anxiety, and the therapeutic effect may increase with the increase of the treatment course. Although lorazepam tablets showed no difference in the improvement of SAS scores and comprehensive clinical efficacy compared with traditional Chinese medicine treatment after 2 weeks of treatment, its efficacy did not improve further after 4 weeks of treatment. Its improvement in anxiety symptoms and insomnia was not as good as that of sour jujube kernel decoction combined with gardenia and fermented soya bean decoction, which may be related to the easy development of drug resistance to benzodiazepines.