The Quintessence of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Syndrome and Its Distribution among Advanced Cancer Patients with Constipation

Table 5

The relationship between severity of constipation and opioids intake with the pattern distribution.

	Deficiency (𝑛=127)	Excess (𝑛=7)	Complex (𝑛=91)	𝑃 value
Severity (mean ± SD)	3.19±1.85	3.29±2.21	3.91±1.57	0.012
No constipation	32 (25.2%)	3 (42.9%)	9 (9.9%)	0.013
Constipation	63 (49.6%)	1 (14.35%)	50 (54.9%)
Severe constipation	32 (25.2%)	3 (42.9%)	32 (35.2%)
With opioids	73 (57.5%)	4 (57.1%)	60 (65.9%)	0.442
With strong opioids	29 (22.8%)	2 (28.6%)	26 (28.6%)	0.618
With weak opioids	49 (38.6%)	2 (28.6%)	36 (39.6%)	0.847

Deficiency: deficient pattern; excess: excessive pattern; complex: deficiency-excess complex.
Severity of constipation was evaluated with an 8-point ordinal rating scale, where 0-1 indicated no constipation, 2–4 indicated constipation, and 5–7 indicated severe constipation.
Strong opioids included morphine, methadone, and fentanyl, while weak opioids included tramadol, dihydrocodeine, dextropropoxyphene, and codeine.