Schizophrenia

How Chinese medicine differentiates schizophrenia — distinct from Hallucinations and Aggression already covered, which are single-symptom pages — the five patterns you'll actually meet in practice, and the points for each. Supportive care only. Acupuncture only — no herbs.

This page is educational, for practitioners and students — it is not a diagnostic tool and does not replace a proper in-person assessment. Schizophrenia requires ongoing psychiatric diagnosis and management, including medication where indicated; acupuncture here is supportive alongside that care — for symptom relief, medication side effects, and quality of life — never a substitute for it, and never a reason to stop or reduce prescribed treatment without a psychiatrist's guidance.

General Acupuncture Points

Acupuncture points traditionally used for schizophrenia — 14 key points, used across the patterns below rather than tied to just one.

Point	Key action
ST-40	Resolves Phlegm and Dampness. Calms the Mind and opens the Mind's orifices.
P-7	Calms the Mind and opens the Mind's orifices. Clears Heat and Toxic Heat.
DU-20	Extinguishes interior Wind. Subdues Liver-Yang. Benefits the Brain.
LR-3	Subdues Liver-Yang. Extinguishes interior Wind. Calms the Mind.
KI-1	Nourishes Yin and clears Empty-Heat. Calms the Mind.
REN-12	Tonifies Stomach and Spleen. Resolves Dampness and Phlegm. Calms the Mind.
HE-7	Calms the Mind and opens the Mind's orifices. Nourishes Heart-Blood.
P-6	Opens the chest and moves Qi and Blood. Calms the Mind.
LR-2	Drains Liver-Fire and subdues Liver-Yang. Cools Blood.
BL-15	Calms the Mind. Nourishes the Heart. Regulates Heart-Qi and invigorates Blood.
SP-10	Cools Blood. Invigorates Blood and eliminates stasis.
SP-6	Strengthens the Spleen. Nourishes Blood and Yin.
KI-3	Tonifies the Kidneys (both Yin and Yang). Benefits Essence.
KI-6	Nourishes Kidney-Yin. Calms the Mind.

The Five Patterns

↑ reinforcing ↓ reducing ⊥ even method.

1. Phlegm-Fire Harassing the Heart View full pattern →

Clinical manifestations: Extreme agitation, violent outbursts, shouting, flushed red face and eyes, thick yellow sticky phlegm, bitter taste, chest oppression with a gurgling throat.

Tongue: Red body with a red prickly tip, swollen, thick yellow greasy coating. Pulse: Slippery and rapid, full and overflowing at the left Cun position.

Treatment principle: Clear Fire and eliminate Phlegm, anchor the Spirit, calm the Liver and subdue Yang.

ST-40 ↓ P-7 ↓ DU-20 ↓ LR-3 ↓ KI-1 ↓

Note: no moxa. Direct match with this site's own Phlegm-Fire-harassing-the-Heart slide.

2. Phlegm Misting the Heart View full pattern →

Clinical manifestations: Emotional flatness and apathy, blank staring, muttering, rattling or gurgling throat sounds, excessive drooling, dizziness, slurred speech, cold hands.

Tongue: Pale, swollen body with thick white greasy coating, often stiff. Pulse: Slippery, in the middle positions.

Treatment principle: Scour Phlegm and open the orifices, clear Heat and transform Phlegm, regulate Qi and resolve turbidity.

ST-40 ↓ REN-12 ↑ HE-7 ↓ P-6 ↓

Note: moxa applicable on REN-12 only. Direct match with this site's own Phlegm-misting-the-Mind slide — the explicit slurred speech here is exactly that slide's own severity marker, unlike the chronic-fog-only presentations declined elsewhere (OCD, Alzheimer's Disease, Apathy).

3. Liver-Qi Stagnation That Transforms Into Heat View full pattern →

Clinical manifestations: Explosive anger and irritability, bitter taste, distending ribcage pain, red face and eyes, difficulty falling asleep, restlessness and agitation.

Tongue: Red body, redder on the sides, yellow coating. Pulse: Wiry and rapid.

Treatment principle: Course the Liver and resolve constraint, clear Heat from the Liver and Blood, nourish Blood.

LR-3 ↓ LR-2 ↓ HE-7 ↓ P-6 ↓

Note: no moxa. Matched to this site's own Stagnant-Liver-Qi-turning-into-Heat slide, the same paraphrase-link convention used throughout this site.

4. Heart-Blood Stagnation View full pattern →

Clinical manifestations: Stabbing chest pain in a fixed location, dark purple tongue with stasis spots, fixed and repetitive bizarre delusions, purple lips and nails, cold hands.

Tongue: Dark purple body with stasis spots and distended sublingual veins. Pulse: Choppy or knotted.

Treatment principle: Invigorate Blood and dispel stasis, open the orifices and revive consciousness, unblock the channels and collaterals.

BL-15 ↓ P-6 ↓ SP-10 ↓ SP-6 ↓

Note: no moxa. Direct exact-name match with this site's own Heart-Blood-stasis slide.

5. Kidney-Yin Deficiency With Empty-Heat Blazing View full pattern →

Clinical manifestations: Five-palm heat, night sweats and low-grade afternoon fever, mental restlessness worse at night, insomnia with frequent waking, lower back soreness and weakness, malar flush.

Tongue: Red, thin, dry body with little or no coating, possibly cracked. Pulse: Fine and rapid, may feel floating and empty, weak at the Chi position.

Treatment principle: Nourish Yin, clear deficiency Heat, nourish Kidney-Yin.

KI-3 ↑ KI-6 ↑ SP-6 ↑ HE-7 ↑ LR-2 ↓

Note: no moxa given the Empty-Heat. Direct match with this site's own Kidney-Yin-deficiency-Empty-Heat-blazing slide.

Related conditions

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