Acupuncture With Deqi And Psychological Effects in Treatment of Bell's Palsy

Study of Effects of Deqi and Neuropsychological Factors on Acupuncture Effects in Treatment of Bell's Palsy

The purpose of this study is to observe the influence of Deqi and neuropsychological factors on effects of acupuncture treatment for Bell's Palsy.

Through long-term clinical practice，acupuncture treatment on facial paralysis has been generally proved effective；the large number of ancient and modern medical literature also have suggested that acupuncture is beneficial for facial paralysis. However,a scientific basis is still needed to be established to make sure the efficacy of acupuncture be recognized internationally.This study will adopt a series of international practice scales ,such as House Brackmann Scale,Facial Disability Index(FDI),World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), Cattell Personality Factors (16PF),and Cancellation test to evaluate the role of deqi and neuropsychological factors in the acupuncture treatment for Bell's Palsy.

Inclusion criteria:

1. Patients who were diagnosed to have unilateral facial-nerve weakness without any identifiable causes within 168 hours after onset of symptoms;
2. aged 18 to 65 years.

Exclusion criteria：

1. illiterate;
2. the facial paralysis is caused by herpes zoster;
3. recurrent facial paralysis;
4. noticeable asymmetry of the face before the illness which may affect the evaluation;
5. history of peptic ulcer disease, severe hypertension, uncontrolled diabetes, liver and kidney dysfunction, pregnancy, mental illness, or serious systemic diseases which may affect the treatment.