Back to Search
Start Over
Is Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine Beneficial for Psoriasis Vulgaris? A Meta-Analysis of Comparisons with Acitretin.
- Source :
- Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine; Mar2016, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p174-188, 15p, 1 Diagram, 3 Charts, 1 Graph
- Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- Background: Psoriasis vulgaris is a chronic disease that significantly affects patient's quality of life and poses an economic burden. Acitretin is a second-generation retinoid used for psoriasis in clinical practice. Orally administered Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), alone or combined with acitretin, has been used for the clinical management of psoriasis vulgaris. This systematic review evaluates the efficacy of oral CHM in comparison with acitretin and the add-on effect of oral CHM to acitretin. Methods: Five English databases and four Chinese databases were searched from their inceptions to May 2014. Included randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) were published in English or Chinese, compared oral CHM or the combination of oral CHM and acitretin with acitretin, and used Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) as the outcome measure. Results: A total of 25 RCTs were included in this review: 8 studies compared oral CHM with acitretin, 12 compared the combination with acitretin alone, and 5 were three-arm studies that compared both with acitretin. Conclusion: The meta-analysis indicated that oral CHM was effective for psoriasis vulgaris as follows: (1) Oral CHM is neither superior nor inferior to acitretin, and (2) oral CHM could produce add-on effects when combined with acitretin. Oral CHM itself appeared safe for treating psoriasis vulgaris and possibly could reduce the common adverse events seen with acitretin. However, the long-term effect and safety of oral CHM could not be assessed. Further research should consider including a placebo control and using outcome measures according to international guidelines to evaluate CHM, as well as include follow-ups to monitor longer-term efficacy and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- PSORIASIS treatment
CHINESE medicine
ALTERNATIVE medicine
COMBINATION drug therapy
CINAHL database
CONFIDENCE intervals
DRUG synergism
HERBAL medicine
MEDICAL databases
INFORMATION storage & retrieval systems
MEDICAL information storage & retrieval systems
MEDLINE
META-analysis
ONLINE information services
PROBABILITY theory
RESEARCH funding
RETINOIDS
SYNDROMES
SYSTEMATIC reviews
EVIDENCE-based medicine
PROFESSIONAL practice
EFFECT sizes (Statistics)
RANDOMIZED controlled trials
TREATMENT effectiveness
RESEARCH bias
SEVERITY of illness index
PUBLICATION bias
TREATMENT duration
DATA analysis software
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
ODDS ratio
AMED (Information retrieval system)
EVALUATION
THERAPEUTICS
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10755535
- Volume :
- 22
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 113838779
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2014.0212