scholarly journals Chinese Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Prehypertension

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Bo Feng ◽  
Xiaochen Yang ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Xingjiang Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Life Style ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Placebo Control ◽  
Size Estimation ◽  
Chinese Herbal ◽  
Life Style Intervention

Objectives. To assess the current clinical evidence of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for prehypertension.Search Strategy. Electronic databases were searched until May, 2013.Inclusion Criteria. We included randomized clinical trials testing CHM against life style intervention and no treatment, or combined with life style intervention against life style intervention.Data Extraction and Analyses. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted according to Cochrane standards.Results. Five trials were included. Methodological quality of the trials was evaluated as generally low. Only 1 trial reported allocation sequence. No trial reported the allocation concealment, double blinding, placebo control, presample size estimation, intention to treat analysis, and drop-out. All the included trials were not multicenter and large scale. Although meta-analysis showed that CHM is superior to either life style intervention group or no treatment group in decreasing blood pressure, we are unable to draw a definite conclusion on the effect of CHM due to the poor research methods used in the reviewed trials. The safety of CHM is still uncertain.Conclusions. There is no evidence to show that CHM is effective and safe for prehypertension due to serious methodological flaw of the reviewed trials. Rigorously designed trials are warranted to confirm these results.

scholarly journals Chinese Herbal Medicine for Acute Mountain Sickness: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Xingjiang Xiong ◽  
Yanwei Xing ◽  
Zhen Liu ◽  
Wenrui Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Acute Mountain Sickness ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Routine Treatment ◽  
Chinese Herbal

Objectives. We aimed to assess the current clinical evidence of Chinese herbal medicine for AMS.Methods. Seven electronic databases were searched until January 2013. We included randomized clinical trials testing Chinese herbal medicine against placebo, no drugs, Western drugs, or a combination of routine treatment drugs against routine treatment drugs. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted according to Cochrane standards.Results. Nine randomized trials were included. The methodological quality of the included trials was evaluated as low. Two trials compared prescriptions of Chinese formula used alone with Western drugs. A meta-analysis showed a beneficial effect in decreasing the score of AMS (MD: −2.23 [−3.98, −0.49],P=0.01). Only one trial compared prescriptions of Chinese formula used alone with no drugs. A meta-analysis showed a significant beneficial effect in decreasing the score of AMS (MD: −6.00 [−6.45, −5.55],P<0.00001). Four trials compared Chinese formula used alone with placebo. A meta-analysis also showed a significant beneficial effect in decreasing the score of AMS (MD: −1.10 [−1.64, −0.55],P<0.0001). Two trials compared the combination of Chinese formula plus routine treatment drugs with routine treatment drugs. A meta-analysis showed a beneficial effect in decreasing the score of AMS (MD: −5.99 [−11.11, −0.86],P=0.02).Conclusions. No firm conclusion on the effectiveness and safety of Chinese herbal medicine for AMS can be made. More rigorous high-quality trials are required to generate a high level of evidence and to confirm the results.

scholarly journals Chinese Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Obesity-Related Hypertension

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Bo Feng ◽  
Xingjiang Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Western Medicine ◽  
Methodological Quality ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Combination Group ◽  
Chinese Herbal ◽  
Positive Results

Objectives. To assess the clinical evidence of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for obesity-related hypertension. Search Strategy. Electronic databases were searched until January, 2013.Inclusion Criteria. We included randomized clinical trials (RCTs) testing CHM against nondrug therapy and conventional western medicine, or combined with conventional western medicine against conventional western medicine.Data Extraction and Analyses. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted according to Cochrane standards.Results. 11 trials were included. Methodological quality was evaluated as low. 1 trial investigated the efficacy of CHM plus nondrug therapy versus nondrug therapy. Positive results in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (WMD: −5.40 [-5.88,-4.92];P<0.00001) were found in combination group. 1 trial investigated the efficacy of CHM versus conventional western medicine. Positive results in systolic blood pressure (SBP) (WMD: −1.39 [-2.11,-0.67];P=0.0002) were found in CHM. 9 trials investigated the efficacy of CHM plus conventional western medicine versus conventional western medicine. Positive results in SBP (WMD: -6.71 [-11.08,-1.25];P=0.02) were found in combination group. The safety of CHM is unknown.Conclusions. No definite conclusion could be got due to poor methodological quality. Rigorously designed trials are warranted to confirm these results.

scholarly journals Placebo design in WHO-registered trials of Chinese herbal medicine need improvements

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Zhang ◽  
Ran Tian ◽  
Chen Zhao ◽  
Xudong Tang ◽  
Aiping Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
World Health ◽  
Placebo Control ◽  
Included Trial ◽  
Chinese Herbal ◽  
The Common ◽  
Physically Identical ◽  
Placebo Design

Abstract Background Physical identical and pharmacological inert are the basic requirements for placebo design, which are essential in clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention. However, it is difficult to makeup a placebo of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) because of special color, taste and smell, etc. Currently, there is no specific requirements and standards for the creation of a CHM-placebo. The purpose of this study is to review the characteristics of the CHM-placebo design and application in registered clinical trials with CHM interventions and identify the common problems, if any. Methods The World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) was systematically searched for CHM interventional trials with placebo-controlled design up to 31 December 2017. Registered information of each included trial was collected from specific registries involved in ICTRP through hyperlinks. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the characteristics of placebo design in CHM trial registrations. Results A total of 889 CHM interventional trials were registered from 1999 to 2017, and 40.8% (363) of them included CHM-placebo control design. The common ways of their design were: placebo as sole control (191, 52.6%); placebo as add-on control with baseline treatment (84, 23.1%); and placebo as double-dummy control (57, 15.7%). Among 363 included trials, 46 (12.7%) reported the compositions of placebos, including CHM ingredients (17 trials), excipients and other agents (29 trials). 2 (0.6%) reported pharmacological inert testing, and 52 (14.3%) descripted their placebos to be physically identical with the CHMs. 14 (3.9%) reported quality control of placebos, and 2 (0.6%) provided blinding assessment of placebos. Conclusions The placebos included in most CHM trial registrations is not optimal in terms of placebo design, application, evaluation and reporting. Specific guidelines or standards of CHM-placebo design, including usage requirements, preparation specifications, quality assessments and reporting guidelines should be developed thus to improve their quality.

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