Neuralgia due to tabes dorsalis is refractory to treatment. We report a case which responded to Kagawa-gedoku-zai-kamiho. A 55-year-old female patients started having persistent systemic pain, particularly frequently in both of her lower extremities. It did not improve, and the diagnosis was made as tabes dorsalis at Fukushima Medical College Hospital. After antisyphilitic therapy, she underwent acupuncture and treatment with various drugs for systemic pain. However, the analgesic effect of this treatment gradually diminished, and she was referred to our institute (Department of Kampo Medicine). Based on her medical history and systemic conditions, we prescribed the above formulation. The analgesic effect of a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (suppositories) gradually increased. When pain in the legs later became more severe, Bushi and Daio were given in increased doses, which relieved the pain completely and enabled the patient to stop the suppositories. In January, 1993, pain developed again in the arm. The doses of Bushi and Daio were increased, which gradually reduced the pain. Kampo medicine seems to offer promising treatment for syphilis after antisyphilitic therapy.

28 years-old male patient has felt dysesthesia as swelling of forehead, numbness of cheeks and pain of eyes. Dysesthesia has developed gradually.
“Fuku-myaku” means the pulse difficult to be palpable. This characteristic pulse and Oketsu symptoms suggested the indications of Tokaku-joki-to and Tokaku-joki-to-go-Daio-botampi-to. As we had found “Fuku-myaku” and oketsu syndrome in this patient, we treated with these kampo medicine according to “Sho” diagnosed by Kampo. The dysesthesia in the patient has been gradually disappeared. At the same time, attacks of asthma which had appeared after discontinuation of Saiboku-to administration have been also disappeared. It is easy to make a mistake that “Fuku-myaku” is for pulse of hypo-functioning condition. But we understand that “Fuku-myaku” is not always for pulse of hypo-functioning condition, but for hyper-functioning condition.

Many of the students belonging to the School of Health and Social Services will be responsible for health education in the future, and it is important that they have an understanding of the importance of Kampo medicine and the ability to give appropriate guidance in the field. But their educational goals need discussing. We conducted lectures on Kampo medicine with medical school students towards this end, and conducted before and after questionnaire surveys to gauge their effect. Students with a desirable degree of awareness toward Kampo medicine in Japanese society increased from 58.0 ± 15.4% to 88.5 ± 10.2%, and students judging Kampo as either useful or extremely useful rose from 58.4% to 95.9%. It is our hope that, with the raised awareness from these lectures as a base, these students will go on to engage in suitable medical educational activities in the future.