Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an Adjunct Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Depression is the most common non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). Recent clinical trials have evaluated the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of depression in PD (dPD). However, the results are conflicting rather than conclusive. To investigate the effectiveness of TCM for the treatment of dPD, a systematic review was conducted. Literature searches and collections were performed to identify studies addressing the treatment of TCM for dPD. The methodological quality and risk of bias in all studies included were evaluated. Weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used as the effect measure. Finally, a total of 10 studies involving 582 patients were identified. The pooled results revealed that TCM combined with conventional drugs significantly improved the total scores of the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (WMD = -7.35, 95% CI: -11.24 to -3.47) and the score of the Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAM-D) (WMD = -4.19, 95% CI: -5.14 to -3.24) compared with conventional drug, respectively. Conclusively, there is evidence that TCM may be beneficial to the treatment of dPD in spite of the methodological weakness of the included studies.

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Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Combined with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors on the Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease with Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The American Journal of Chinese Medicine ◽

10.1142/s0192415x21500282 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 49 (03) ◽

pp. 627-643

Author(s):

Si-Tong Feng ◽

Xiao-Le Wang ◽

Ya-Ting Wang ◽

Yu-He Yuan ◽

Zhi-Peng Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Chinese Medicine ◽

Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽

Serotonin Reuptake ◽

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors ◽

Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors ◽

Selective Serotonin

Depression is a common neuropsychiatric symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD), resulting in a lower quality of life and cognitive impairment in PD patients. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulas have been widely used in neurodegenerative disease and neuropsychic disorders to improve life quality of patients in ethnomedicine. TCM formulas combined with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) also have a positive effect on depressed PD compared with SSRIs as reported by several clinical studies. However, the results are discordant and failed to be conclusive. We aim to evaluate the efficacy of TCM formulas combined with SSRIs for depressed PD in this systematic review. We searched literatures from PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, Embase, Google Scholar, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, and VIP Information Database before July 2020. We included randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of TCM formulas combined with SSRIs on depressed PD patients. This analysis was according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline. Eleven randomized clinical trials involving 861 subjects were enrolled in this analysis. The overall results showed that TCM formulas combined with SSRIs significantly improved the depression score [weighted mean difference (WMD): −4.920, 95% confidence interval (CI): (−5.999, −3.840); [Formula: see text]¡ 0.001] and had a statistical significance on Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale II score [WMD: −1.209, 95% CI: (−1.561, −0.857); [Formula: see text] < 0.001]. Furthermore, we observed that Chai-Hu-Shu-Gan Powder combined with SSRIs had a significant improvement on the depressive symptom in PD compared to the SSRIs alone [WMD: −5.390, 95% CI: (−7.66, −3.11); [Formula: see text] < 0.001]. No severe side events were reported in these included trials. This systematic review provided the evidences that TCM formulas combined with SSRIs might be helpful and safe in the treatment of depression of PD, including Chai-Hu-Shu-Gan Powder. Also, more randomized double-blinded trials with reliable design are required in the future.

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