1Neili Ren Xin Tang Chinese Medicine Clinic, Taoyuan, Taiwan
2Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan
3The School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
4Taiwan Association Traditional Chinese Medicine of Family, Taipei, Taiwan
【Summary】
Zhang Zhong-jing explicitly elaborated that certain Chinese medicines induce the adverse drug reaction of chilling limbs for specific diseases. He has been widely recognized as the first Chinese medical practitioner to report the adverse drug reactions of Chinese medicine in the medical history of China. This paper aims at identifying which Chinese medicine results in chilling limbs for which diseases by revisiting the accounts in the version of the Treatise on Febrile Disease during the Song Dynasty. The findings show that only three out of three hundred ninety-eight accounts report the adverse drug reaction. Among the three accounts,only two of them specify and match the Chinese medicines with the adverse drug reaction. One is Gui-zhi-tang for patients with deficiency in yin and yang. The other is Da-qing-long-tang for patients with external and internal fatigue. We further investigate the causes and mechanisms for the two accounts as physical constitutions may differ over time. Additionally, we take into account the forms of Chinese medicines varying from soup in ancient times to scientifically processed powder in modern times.
The paper makes a useful reference to the Chinese medical practitioners,who were encouraged to report the cases of chilling limbs induced by Chinese medicines to the TCM-ADR Reporting Center, Taipei, Taiwan. By updating Zhang Zhongjing’s 2000-year-old accounts of adverse drug reactions, we advocate promoting the on-job educational training for the Chinese medicine practitioners in the interest of improving the quality of their prescriptions of Chinese medicine.
【Keywords】Treatise of Febrile Disease, Chilling limbs, Chinese medicine