Constitutional study of Parkinson's disease patients based on traditional Chinese medicine pattern differentiation

Objectives: It was the aim of this study to determine whether (1) Parkinson's disease (PD) patients can be divided into different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitutions based on the 44-item Traditional Chinese Medical Constitutional Scale and Classification (TCM-CSC, Chinese version, 中醫體質及分型量表), (2) whether levodopa usage correlates with the TCM classification type, and (3) whether there is a difference in the mean daily intake of levodopa between males and females in any of the constitutional types. Methods: PD patients who had visited the TCM clinic of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) or who had attended the PD public talks organized by HKBU and the Association of Parkinson's Disease in Hong Kong were invited for interviews with TCM assessors. The TCM-CSC (Chinese version) was used in the assessment to divide patients into four different constitutions: the balanced constitution (type A), the yang-deficiency constitution (type B), the yin-deficiency constitution (type C) and the stasis constitution (type D). Results: Sixty-three patients (29 males, 34 females; mean age 63.65 ± 8.116 years; mean PD duration 5.49 ± 4.544 years) participated in the study. Sixteen PD patients (26%) had only one type of TCM constitution, while 47 PD patients (74%) had more than one type of TCM constitution. Type D patients showed the lowest intake of daily levodopa. There was no significant difference in the mean daily intake of levodopa between males and females in any of the constitutional types. Conclusions: (1) PD patients cannot be divided into different constitutional types based on the TCM-CSC effectively. (2) In general, levodopa usage does not correlate with the constitutional type; however, patients with the stasis constitution (type D) showed the lowest levodopa intake compared to the other constitutions. (3) There was no significant difference in the mean daily intake of levodopa between males and females. Further research on the treatment pattern of different TCM constitutions, using large samples, is warranted.