Use of traditional drugs in a hospital of Chinese medicine in Germany.

The frequency of use of traditional Chinese drugs was investigated in relation to Western and Chinese diagnostic classifications in a hospital for traditional Chinese medicine in Germany. All 1597 in-patients treated in the hospital between February 1992 and August 1993 entered a prospective observational study. About two thirds of the patients suffered from chronic pain syndromes, the most frequent single diagnosis being migraine (n=244). All patients were treated with at least one of four Chinese therapies (traditional Chinese drugs, acupuncture, Tuina-massage, Qi-gong). 95.1% of all patients received traditional Chinese drug treatment, prescribed in complex prescriptions including 3 to 12 single drugs from a total of 305. Drug patterns prescribed to patients with the same Western diagnosis tended to be similar, but could differ strongly for single drugs in subgroups with distinct Chinese diagnoses. Studies evaluating traditional Chinese treatment strategies in patients classified according to Western nosology should take into account possible diagnostic differences according to Chinese nosology. The development of a reliable coding system for Chinese diagnostic classifications is a precondition for further cross-cultural studies. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.