Exploring dosage patterns of Chinese herbal medicine for recurrent headaches: A data mining analysis

doi:10.5246/jcps.2024.02.010

Abstract

Abstract:

This study was carried out based on data mining methods aimed at exploring the medication patterns of Chinese medicine in the treatment of recurrent headaches, thereby providing valuable references for the clinical treatment of this condition. Initially, relevant databases and classical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) books containing prescriptions for treating recurrent headaches were gathered. Subsequently, various techniques, such as frequency analysis, association rule analysis, cluster analysis, and decision tree analysis, were employed to investigate the prescription patterns of Chinese medicine for recurrent headaches. Following the screening process, a total of 174 prescriptions were obtained, encompassing 227 Chinese medicinal ingredients that were utilized cumulatively 1622 times. The findings indicated that Chinese medicine commonly employed in treating recurrent headaches predominantly fell under the categories of dispersing wind, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and tonifying deficiency. These medicines often possessed warm and pungent flavors and had an affinity for the liver meridian or spleen meridian. Key Chinese medicine identified included Chuanxiong rhizoma, Angelicae dahuricae radix, Asariradix et rhizoma, Saposhnikoviae radix, and Glycyrrhizae radix et rhizoma. Furthermore, through association rule analysis, a total of 92 combinations of Chinese medicine were identified. Cluster analysis yielded six distinct clusters of prescriptions for treating recurrent headaches. Simultaneously, decision tree analysis demonstrated that Angelicae dahuricae radix emerged as the most influential drug, with the CHAID algorithm exhibiting the highest accuracy rate. This study successfully employed data mining techniques to identify the core Chinese medicine used in treating recurrent headaches. It unveiled potential prescription patterns within these prescriptions and clarified the medication strategies for managing this condition. Consequently, these findings provided valuable insights for clinical diagnosis and treatment of recurrent headaches.

Key words: Recurrent headaches, Data mining, Drug administration rules, Cluster analysis, Decision tree model

Supporting:

Xiao Zhang, Chunxing Wu, Bolong Wang. Exploring dosage patterns of Chinese herbal medicine for recurrent headaches: A data mining analysis[J]. Journal of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2024, 33(2): 110-122.

Figures/Tables 13

Table 1. The categorization of the frequency and effectiveness of Chinese medicine in treating recurrent headaches.

Table 2. Frequency and efficacy of core Chinese medicines.

Table 3. Association rules for 2-flavor combinations of core Chinese medicine.

Table 4. Association rules for 3-flavor combinations of core Chinese medicine.

Table 5. Association rules for 4-flavor combinations of core Chinese medicine.

Table 6. Clustered core combinations for the treatment of recurrent headaches.

Table 7. Summary of the decision tree model.

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