To investigate the effectiveness of acupuncture at scalp acupoint penetration acupuncture combined with warming needle moxibustion in improving cognitive function and quality of life in patients with vascular dementia（VD）.

A total of124 patients with Qistagnation and blood stasis type of VD admitted to the hospital between August2017 and July 2019 were selected and divided into the needle therapy group（scalp acupoint penetration acupuncture combined with warming needle moxibustion）and the drug group（butylphthalide soft capsule），62 each in each.Both groups were treated for a total of6 weeks.The clinicalefficacy，traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores，mini-mental state examination（MMSE），Hasegawa dementia status scale（HDS-R），functional activity questionnaire for social functioning（FAQ），activities of daily living（ADL）and adverse effects occurrence results were observed and recorded for comparison.

The total efficiency of the needle therapy group（82.26%）was significantly higher than thatof the drug group（61.29%）（P<0.05）.Before treatment，the differences in traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores，the scores of MMSE，HDS-R，FAQ and ADL between the needle therapy group and the drug group were notstatistically significant（P>0.05）.After treatment，the traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores and FAQ scores were significantly lower（P<0.05），and the scores of MMSE，HDS-R and ADL were significantly higher（P<0.05），and the traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores and FAQ scores in the needle therapy group were significantly lower than those in the drug group（P<0.05），and the scores of MMSE，HDS-R and ADL in the needle therapy group were significantly greater than those in the drug group（P<0.05）.The differences in the incidence of the total adverse reactions between the needle therapy group and the drug group were not statistically significant（P>0.05）.

The efficacy of scalp acupoint penetration acupuncture combined with warming needle moxibustion in treating VD can effectively improve the patients'cognitive function and quality of life，with good safety，which is worthy of clinical promotion and application.