Patterns & Practice In Chinese Medicine

Like its companion volume, Acupuncture Patterns & Practice, this book is a clinically oriented presentation of differential diagnosis and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine.

This volume consists of eight series of case studies (40 in all), each focusing on a variety of patterns associated with a common clinical disorder: asthma, facial disorders, poor appetite, abdominal and epigastric pain, abnormal bowel movements, abnormal urination, constraint disorders, hypochondrial and intercostal pain.

Each case provides a systematic analysis of the patient's presentation, from the cause and site of the disorder to the underlying theory of the case. The pathogenesis, pattern of disease, treatment principle, and modalities of treatment (including both herbs and acupuncture) are described in illuminating detail. The authors, themselves both clinicians, then pose a number of questions that are likely to confront the practitioner.

More than a hundred charts organize and present in graphic form what is explained in the text. Each chapter concludes with a diagnostic overview or "tree" that summarizes the process of differential diagnosis for the patterns associated with that disorder.

Patterns & Practice in Chinese Medicine will be of particular value to the developing practitioner, as well as the student who is making the transition from the classroom to the clinic.

The studying of the case histories of skilled and experienced doctors is considered to be one of the main ways that a student or practitioner can develop their clinical practice. This is a companion volume to Acupuncture Patterns and Practice by the same authors published by Eastland Press in 1993. That text was an inspiration to students and practitioners in the thoroughness and acuteness with which it approached the analysis of each case history, and this book maintains the same high standards. The main difference is that whilst the former text covered acupuncture only, this text includes both acupuncture and herbal medicine protocols. Unlike many (mostly Chinese published) texts which cover both modalities, however, the discussion of the acupuncture treatment is given equal weight to that of the herbal medicine. This book covers eight main disease categories, namely asthma, facial disorders, poor appetite, abdominal and epigastric pain, abnormal bowel movements, abnormal urination, constraint disorders and hypochondriac and intercostal pain. Within each category a number of cases are presented, each discussed with minute attention to presenting symptoms, history, theory, causation, pathological changes, pattern differentiation, questions and answers on special characteristics and difficulties presented by each case, treatment principle, explanation of either acupuncture or herbal treatment or both and a follow-up indicating how the patient progressed through treatment. There is a commitment to meticulous explanation and as in its companion text, there are numerous explanatory diagrams.

Acknowledgements vii

Preface ix

ASTHMA 1
FACIAL DISORDERS 31
POOR APPETITE 63
ABDOMINAL AND EPIGASTRIC PAIN 91
ABNORMAL BOWEL MOVEMENTS 133
ABNORMAL URINATION 173
CONSTRAINT DISORDERS 203
HYPOCHONDRIAL AND INTERCOSTAL PAIN 263

Appendix: Cooking Herbs 297
Select Bibliography 299
Points and Herbal Formula Index 303
General Index 307