title: Acupuncture in the Treatment of a Female Patient Suffering from Chronic Schizophrenia and Sleep Disorders.
abstract: Background. The use of acupuncture in the treatment of sleep disorders in patients with chronic schizophrenia is investigated.Case Presentation. We report the case of a 44-year-old female outpatient of German origin who had been suffering from long-term schizophrenia and sleep disorders. The patient was treated with manual acupuncture weekly for 12 weeks, and a psychological assessment was performed before, immediately after, and three months after the acupuncture treatment period. In addition, actiwatch data were collected for 14 days both before and after the acupuncture treatment period.Conclusion. Acupuncture treatment led to a decrease in general psychopathology, less severe sleep problems, and markedly improved cognitive functioning (working memory) in the patient; however, the positive and the negative symptoms remained stable. The actiwatch data revealed a beneficial effect of acupuncture, showing better sleep latency, a trend towards better sleep efficiency, and a decrease in the number of minutes that the patient was awake during the night after acupuncture treatment. In sum, this study showed that acupuncture might be beneficial in the treatment of sleep disorders in patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia, but future, large, randomized (placebo), controlled, clinical trials are needed in order to replicate the present preliminary findings.
authors.affiliation: Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, 6525 HR Nijmegen, Netherlands; Psychiatric Research Institute, LVR-Klinik Bedburg-Hau, Bahnstraße 6, 47551 Bedburg-Hau, Germany.
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.affiliation: Research Group of Pain and Neuroscience, Kyung Hee University, No. 47 Gyeonghuidae-Gil, Dongdaemun-Gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0509-6681
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Meridian of Oriental Medicine, Sang Ji University, 83 Sangjidae-gil, Wonju 26339, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sujung
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9883-6153
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.affiliation: Research Group of Pain and Neuroscience, Kyung Hee University, No. 47 Gyeonghuidae-Gil, Dongdaemun-Gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sook-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Research Institute, LVR-Klinik Bedburg-Hau, Bahnstraße 6, 47551 Bedburg-Hau, Germany.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Staudte
authors.affiliation: Research Group of Pain and Neuroscience, Kyung Hee University, No. 47 Gyeonghuidae-Gil, Dongdaemun-Gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea; Brussels Institute for Applied Linguistics, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maurits
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0383-8733
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van den Noort