Efficacy Study of Abdominal Massage Therapy to Treat Generalized Anxiety Disorder of Deficiency of Both Heart and Spleen Type

Overview

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by the presence of persistent worry or fear of no explicit object and fixed content, or things that might occur in real life，which not corresponds with the realities. Patients with GAD may occur a series of somatic symptoms including muscle tension, backaches, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, restlessness, as well as psychological feelings of anxiety, worry and feeling overwhelmed. And it always brings some type of functional disability or decrease in quality of life. GAD is treated by Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) or Serotonin, Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors(SNRI) and 5-ht1a receptor agonists as regular medication which have the definite effects. But, some adverse reaction of SSRIs or SNRI leads to the compliance of taking medicine of patients with GAD. There is an impressive data suggesting that Abdominal Massage Therapy is effective in decreasing some symptoms of somatic symptoms and psychological feelings. This study is designed as a parallel group, positive control, non-inferiority study. It will recruit 140 cases of generalized anxiety disorder of deficiency of both heart and spleen type. Both the treatment group and the control group will be randomly assigned 70 cases. Patients in the treatment group will be treated by Abdominal Massage for 6 weeks，and the control group by buspirone . The total study includes 4 views that are respectively before the treatment，after 3 weeks treatment, after the whole treatment , and 3 months after the whole treatment. At all of the 4 views, all participants will be estimated the scores of Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD) ,self-rating anxiety scale(SAS), and Quality of life assessment scale. At the second, third and the forth views, all participants will be estimated Clinical Global Impression ( CGI). At the first and the third views, all participants will be collected the data of content of hydroxytryptamine（5-HT）, Norepinephrine and total cortisol in blood plasma, and of blood stream speed, vascular resistance index and pulsatility index of middle cerebral artery （MCA）, anterior cerebral artery（ACA）, posterior cerebral artery （PCA） and basilar artery（BA）. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of Abdominal Massage Therapy vs. buspirone, and discover the correlation between these scales and these objective indicators.

Quality control: The study site and all researchers must comply with the required qualifications. All researchers must be trained before the study. The study will take a number of measures to ensure the recruitment of the required sample size, and compliance of intervention providers and participants.