ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT IN PATIENTS WITH EPILEPSY

Jihe Zhu, Blagica Arsovska and Kristina Kozovska*

ABSTRACT

Epilepsy is a transient disorder of the brain function. The epileptic seizures, which occur in a form of convulsion, are the result of excessive irritation of the nerve structures. Acupuncture as part of Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment mainly focuses on resolving the blood stagnation in the cerebrovascular system. According to the TCM theory there are 4 patterns that may represent as an underlying contributing factors for developing epilepsy: Kidney QI deficiency, Liver Wind, Liver Yang rising and Liver and Gallbladder Damp Heat. In the research are included 38 patients, 24 male and 14 female, on age from 9 months to 71. All patients were treated with acupuncture for epilepsy. The patients were also taking prescribed medications from doctors. Striking fact is that most of the patients were children, starting from 9 month old baby. Most of the patients – 9, were on age from 10 to 20. Most of the patients have done between 10 and 20 treatments. The number of treatments indicates how many treatments were needed to completely eliminate epileptic seizures. The patients continue with acupuncture treatments in combination with medicament therapy. The acupuncture treatment for epilepsy is a long-term treatment and requires lot of patience and effort to reach the positive results. The treatment helps to reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures, improves the patient's overall physical and mental health, raises the QI energy, regulates and restores the proper flow of the energy and blood, restores the normal balance of the organism and helps as an adjunct to the medication therapy.

Keywords: epilepsy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, neurology.