title: Traditional chinese medicine improves activities of daily living in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: We evaluated the effects of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), named Zeng-xiao An-shen Zhi-chan 2 (ZAZ2), on patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Among 115 patients with idiopathic PD enrolled (mean age, 64.7 ± 10.2 years old), 110 patients (M = 65, F = 45; mean age, 64.9 ± 10.7 years old) completed the study. Patients took either ZAZ2 (n = 59) or placebo granule (n = 56) in a blind manner for 13 weeks while maintaining other anti-Parkinson medications unchanged. All participants wore a motion logger, and we analyzed the power-law temporal autocorrelation of the motion logger records taken on 3 occasions (before, one week, and 13 weeks after the drug administration). Drug efficacy was evaluated with the conventional Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), as well as the power-law exponent α, which corresponds to the level of physical activity of the patients. ZAZ2 but not placebo granule improved the awake-sleep rhythm, the UPDRS Part II, Part II + III, and Part IV scores, and the α values. The results indicate that ZAZ2 improved activities of daily living (ADL) of parkinsonism and, thus, is a potentially suitable drug for long-term use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of TCM, 185, Pu-An Road, Shanghai 200021, China.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kwak
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhenglong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Baofeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto