evaluation of effectiveness and safety of korean herbal medicine for post-accident syndromes after acute phase

Conditions: Traffic Accident; Whiplash Syndrome

Summary: this study is a single blind, randomized controlled trail. condition/disease: post-accident syndromes after acute phase treatment/intervention: herbal medicine treatment strategy

the korean herbal medicine is a complex extract of medicinal herbs prescribed by a korean medicine doctor who has completed specialized education to diagnose the health condition and symptoms of patients with post-traffic accident syndromes. this treatment is known to relieve the post-accident syndromes and improve health. however, there are no studies examining the efficacy of korean herbal medicine alone. so, the investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trials to verify the efficacy and safety of korean herbal medicine. from july, 2021 to may, 2022, the investigators recruited 40 patients who are suffered from post-accident syndromes with the numeric rating scale(nrs) over 5. for experimental group(the korean herbal medicine treatment group, n=20), the investigators conducted korean medicine treatment for 4 weeks(28 days), and for control group(the non-korean herbal medicine treatment group, n=20), just korean medical treatment(acupuncture, pharmacoacupuncture, cupping, and chuna) has been conducted. for these two groups, the investigators compared nrs, impact of event scale-revised-korean(ies-r-k), 5-level euroqol 5-dimension(eq-5d-5l), short-form-12 health survey version2(sf-12 v2), and patient global impression of change(pgic).

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * patients aged 19-70 years on the date they sign the consent form * patients who have passed more than 8 weeks but less than 24 weeks from the date of the accident on the date they sign the consent form * patients with nrs ≥ 5 for post-accident syndromes * patients who provide consent to participate in the trial and return the informed consent form exclusion criteria: * patients whose pain is not due to a traffic accident but due to an existing disease (hernia of intervertebral discs, spinal canal stenosis, fibromyalgia, etc.) * patients who have undergone surgery due to the current traffic accident * patients with progressive neurological deficits or with severe neurological symptoms * patients with other chronic conditions that may interfere with the interpretation of the therapeutic effects or results: cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetic neuropathy, dementia, epilepsy, etc. * patients who are taking steroids, immunosuppressants, mental illness drugs, or other drugs that may affect the results of the study * patients with exceeding twice the normal value in liver function tests and kidney function tests in screening tests * patients with kidney or liver/biliary system disease (hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, liver cancer, biliary obstruction, etc.) * patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction or patients who have had a surgery that may affect drug absorption, such as gastrectomy * patients who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant * patients with a serious mental illness * patients who are participated in clinical trials other than observational studies without therapeutic intervention. * patients who are difficult to complete the research participation agreement * other patients whose participation in the trial is judged by a researcher to be problematic