Clinical study on the effect of Shenlong decoction on vascular dementia

Objective:To study the clinical curative effect of Shenlong Decoction in treating Vascular Dementia （VD）. Methods:Thirty-six patients （seventy-tow） with VD were chosen according to the diagnostic criteria of the American Society of Psychosis and Neuropathy promulgated by WHO （DSM-IV） and were studied in a crossover fashion. Thirty-two patients in treated group were given Shenlong Decoction by random and double-blind way. The curative effect was evaluated by the statistics bases on the MMSE （Mini Mental State Examination） and BBS （Bless Behaviour Schedule） before and after treatment. Results:In the Shenlong Decoction group,notability was achieved in 5 cases, fair in 22 cases,and unchanged in 9 cases. The total effective rate of Shenlong Decoction was 75%. The results of MMSE and BBS showed that Shenlong Decoction had good curative effect not only on improving patients’ results of different dementia scale and disturbance of intelligence, but also improving clinical syndrome, daily self-care ability and reducing the neural functional defect. It also had certain effect on improving lipoprotein, blood viscosity and carbohydrate metabolism of brain. The effects were better than the controlled group（P＜0.001）. Conclusion:The main pathogenic mechanism of VD is the deficiency of the kidney essence, insufficiency of qi and blood stasis. So the principal treatment of VD is to supply the kidney essence, invigorate qi and promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis. Shenlong Decoction has certain safe and reliable effect on VD.