Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of Jin's three-needle therapy on post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) and the effect on neuroelectrophysiology (event-related potentials). Methods: A total of 60 PSCI patients were selected and divided into a treatment group and a control group according to the method of random number table, with 30 cases in each group. The patients in the control group received routine treatment while the patients in the treatment group received additional Jin's three-needle therapy. The treatment for both groups lasted four weeks. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) scores as well as amplitude and latency of potential 300 (P300) were adopted to compare the between-group results before and after treatment. Results: Before treatment, there were no significant differences (all P>0.05) in MMSE and MoCA scores, P300 latency and P300 amplitude between the two groups. After 4 weeks of treatment, the MMSE and MoCA scores and P300 amplitudes were improved in both groups, and the P300 latencies became shorter. The results showed significant intra-group and between-group differences (all P<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the routine treatment, Jin's three-needle therapy is effective for PSCI. The mechanism is probably through its regulation on the patients' neuroelectrophysiology.

Objective To determine the adherence to and its determinants of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) among heroin addicts in Dehong prefecture in Yunnan province from 2005 to 2009. Methods A dynamic cohort analysis was conducted with the time of treatment initiation as the time of cohort entry, to calculate the proportion of adhering to the treatment at different time points after initiation of the treatment, and to study the determinants of adherence.Results A total of 3758 had been treated. Among them, 95.8% were males, 75.8% aged between 20-39 years, 90.4% were peasants or unemployed, 57.0% were ethnic minorities, 35.0% were single and 55.5% were married with spouses, 43.9% were illiterate or educated at most primary school. The age of first using drugs averaged at 23.93 years. About 96.3% of the study subjects had used heroin and 21.7% were HIV-infected. The minimum time under MMT was less than 1 month and the maximum 61 months. The median methadone dose at first delivery was 25 ml, with the minimum 1 ml and the maximum 330 ml. By the end of the study or observation period, a total of 1798 patients had withdrawn from treatment and 1960 were still under treatment. The proportions of adherence to or still being under the treatment after 1,3,6,9, 12,24, 36,48 and 60 months treatment were 0.919,0.847,0.756, 0.690, 0.637, 0.519, 0.417, 0.360 and 0.321, respectively. Multiple regression analysis using Cox proportional hazard model indicated that withdraw from the methadone maintenance treatment was significantly associated with location of the treatment clinics, year of treatment initiation, marital status, HIV infection status, methadone dose of first delivery and the result of last urine test for heroin use. Conclusion MMT attendants in Dehong prefecture had a relatively high withdraw rate and low adherence rate. More efforts are needed to provide tailored counseling and education to MMT attendants, to provide family and community support, appropriate methadone dose at first delivery, and to better coordinate with local police department.