Volume 9, Number 4 | Winter 2014

Clinical Report 2 (Kampo Medicine)
Case Example of a Family whose Family Relations
Improved by Administering Kampo Medicine to a Sisterand Brother who were in a State of Rivalry

Hideaki Yamaguchi
Tosei General HospitalPresent illness: Nine months ago (autumn), thepatient’s wheezing worsened when he came downwith a fever, and was admitted to hospital.
Thereafter, he became prone to coughing, and visitedthe hospital twice a month for his wheezing. He wasreceiving treatment by inhalation and drip infusion,
but was coughing through half the month. Yet, noIntroduction
Families are shaped by the relationships of theirmembers. The relationship between mother andchildren, in particular, tends to be mutually
influenced by them both, so in cases where a childdevelops a mental or psychological disorder, otherfamily members are also included within the scopeof treatment at times, with a focus on mother-childand sibling relationships. Kampo therapy is suited
to this type of case, since Kampo medicine canflexibly address various pathological conditions.
Below is a case example of a family in which a sisterand brother were the subjects of therapy.

tic disorder
Chief complaint: Frequent blinking, coughing, biting
nails
History of present illness: The patient was diagnosed
with bronchial asthma at the age of 2, and has
controlled it with a leukotriene receptor antagonist
and inhaled steroid. From around the time her
younger brother was born two years ago, her chiefcomplaint appeared, and she tended to become
andcausedtempertantrums.

behavior

has

becomeparticularly

Recently, he also began to experience night-crying.
He is sensitive to heat and sweats profusely, but tires
easily and tends to want to sleep.
Diagnosis: Lung defense qi deficiency, emotional
weakness
Mother: She was worried about her second child’s
wheezing aggravating, because the hospital was far
from home. Exhausted from raising the children, sheand the children now live at her parents’ house.
Treatment & progress

Case 1: Sister aged 5 years and 11 months; chronic

agitated

apparent abnormalities were found in an allergy test.

Suchconspicuousrecently. At the same time, however, the patient is aworrier and timid. She has also experienced bouts ofnight-crying.
Diagnosis: Liver qi stagnation turning into fire,emotional weakness

Case 1: Sister
Administered yokukansan (before breakfast andsupper), and kanbakudaisoto (before supper). Firstof all, the patient no longer became frightened, her
tic symptoms gradually improved, and in three
weeks her coughing practically disappeared.
Case 2: Brother
Administered ogikenchuto (before breakfast andsupper) and kanbakudaisoto (before sleep). The
patient’ssymptoms

improved

dramatically(according to the mother). He began to sleep soundly
without any night-crying, and in ten days, hiscoughing disappeared.
After 4 weeks of treatment, the mother, sister andbrotherreturnedhometotheirfather.

Thetreatment is planned to be continued there.

Case 2: Brother aged 1 year and 11 months,
recurrent bronchitis
Chief complaint: Susceptible to colds, frequent
coughing and wheezing
The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)

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Volume 9, Number 4 | Winter 2014

Family structure

Grandfather

FatherGrandmotherMother(child-raising anxiety)

Sister (5 years old)Brother (1 year old)
Rivalry(Recurrent bronchitis)(Tic disorder)

Diagnosis: Liver qi stagnation turning
into fire, emotional weakness

Lung defense qi deficiency,
Emotional weakness

Treatment: Yokukansan,
Kanbakudaisoto

Ogikenchuto,
Kanbakudaisoto

Discussion:
The problems in this family were the mother’sanxietyabout

thebrother’schronic

airwayinflammation and the sister-brother rivalry overtheir mother. The sister could not satisfy her
dependency on her mother, and the anxiety andstrain stemming from that developed into ticsymptoms. The brother displayed lower respiratory
tractsymptoms

andnight-cryingthatwasconsidered a manifestation of his anxiety. Such
conditions of the sister and brother exacerbated themother’s anxiety and drove her to exhaustion, suchthat she was forced to return to her parents’ house.
The father was too busy to sufficiently intervene.
To address this negative spiral, it was necessary toinclude multiple family members in the scope oftreatment. The sister was given yokukansan andkanbakudaisoto as psychotropic drugs. The brotherwas given Kanbakudaisoto as a psychotropic drugand ogikenchuto as a drug for improving his chronicinflammation. As a result, both sister and brothershowed prompt improvement, and the mother’sanxiety was also mitigated, such that the family’sfamily relations improved significantly.

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The Journal of Kampo, Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (KAIM)