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Selected Publication:
Wochesländer, P.
Der Einfluss von Akupunktur und Psychotherapie aus die Keratokonjunktivitis sicca
[ Diplomarbeit/Master Thesis ] Graz Medical University; 2009. pp.75.
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- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Advisor:
- Schmut Otto
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- Abstract:
- Introduction: The dry eye or keratoconjunctivitis sicca is a chronic inflammation of the eye, which is caused by a disorder of the tear film. The patients complain about sensations, from which the most common ones are: dryness, foreign body sensation, burning, itching and pain. In association with the dry eye, an elevated psychic tension has been observed. Since the number of affected people has increased enormously during the last few years, an effective therapy would be beneficial. Conventional therapies with tear substitute application have not led to an improvement in the long term. Due to this reason alternative treatments are required. The acupuncture is one of these methods which has already been proven to be effective in many domains. Hence, the influence of the dry-eye-parameters and the psychic tension are investigated in this study. Methods: 15 patients (13 women, 2 men) with therapy-resistant keratoconjunctivitis sicca were treated once a week with a low level laser of category 2b after a detailed western and Traditional Chinese diagnosis. The mental condition of each patient was determined with the TRIPS (The Rapid Interactive Psychiatric Screen) questionnaire which included questions about frequent psychiatric clinical pictures, such as depression, anxiety disorders and alcohol abuse. As ophthalmological parameters the tear film break up time, the lipid layer thickness, the height of the tear meniscus, and the fluoreszein staining as well as the VAS (visual analogue scale) were examined. Both the TRIPS questionnaire and the dry-eye-parameters were investigated before and after a ten-week-acupuncture-treatment and finally they were compared. Results: When contrasting the parameters before and after the acupuncture treatment, a statistically significant difference for the tear film break up time, the lipid interference test, the VAS and the diagnoses depression and anxiety disorder was detected. In the contrast to this, the results of the fluoreszein staining and the height of the tear meniscus as well as the diagnosis alcohol abuse revealed no significant improvement. Conclusion: The acupuncture can be regarded as an effective treatment with few side effects. In order to achieve an enhancement of the symptoms, the acupuncture in combination with conventional therapy might be a reasonable additive method of healing.