Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate current status of Sasang constitutional medicine researches and to provide source in setting a development strategy and making a policy on the Sasang constitutional medicine.
Method : This study analyzed trends in research as represented in the 142 articles of Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in the field of Sasang constitution medicine from 2007 to 2010.
Result : The main themes of studies were Sasang constitution clinical study (68, 47%) and developing instruments for measuring diagnosis (48, 33%), especially pulse diagnosis (25, 17%). Genetic researches and trends studies on Sasang constitutional medicine were respectively 17 (12%) and 8 (5%). As a result, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine established Sasang clinical information bank, and discovered clinical character of Sasang constitution to develope various diagnosis tools include constitution survey form and pulse diagnosis instrument. Genetic researches also discover constitution related genes such as FTO and MC4R, and explore association between heredity and Sasang constitution.
Conclusion : The abovementioned achievements of Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine were limited to diagnosis process. unquestionably studies for reproducibility and authenticity of constitution diagnosis were important mission of Sasang constitutional medicine. However, to develop the advance of Sasang constitutional medicine, not only constitution diagnosis but also constitutional treatment studies should be conducted. |
