Sleep Tight!: New Study Shows Chinese Herbal Medicine Works for Sleep Difficulty

A prospective follow-up study evaluating the efficacy and safety of the popular Chinese herbal preparation Suan Zao Ren Tang (SZRT) found a significant reduction of sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction in women undergoing climacteric change (aka: the menopausal era) after four weeks of therapy. Several self-report scales were used to measure outcomes including the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) assessment, and the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS). Results indicate that the more severe the symptoms, the more noticeable the alleviation o disturbance. Out of the 67 patients who began the study, 3 withdrew after reporting stomachache, diarrhea, or dizziness. These side effects may have been avoided by simultaneous administration with food or with dose adjustment. This is an excellent indication that SZRT, which has been used clinically for over a millennium, has a measurable and statistically significant benefit. Further large scale double-blind, randomized-controled studies may be developed based on this research to compare the efficacy of SZRT to placebo or other pharmaceutical or medicinal therapies.

Suan Zao Ren Tang as an original treatment for sleep difficulty in climacteric women: a prospective clinical observation by Chia-Hao Yeh, Christof K. Arnold,Yen-Hui Chen, and Jung-Nein Lai was published in the March 2011 issue of Evidenced-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine