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Published on: February 17, 2023
Chinese herbal medicine for schizophrenia: cochrane systematic review of randomised trials
John Rathbone1, Lan Zhang, Mingming Zhang
1Cochrane Schizop Schizophrenia hrenia Group, Academic Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Leeds,15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LT, UK. jrathbone@cochrane-sz.org
Background:
Chinese herbal medicine has been used to treat millions of people with schizophrenia for thousands of years.
Aims:
To evaluate Chinese herbal medicine as a treatment for schizophrenia.
Method:
A systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs).
Results:
Seven trials were included. Most studies evaluated Chinese herbal medicine in combination with Western antipsychotic drugs; in these trials results tended to favour combination treatment compared with antipsychotic alone (Clinical Global Impression ;not improved/worse' n=123, RR=0.19, 95% CI 0.1-0.6, NNT=6,95% CI 5-11; n=109, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ;not improved/worse' RR=0.78,95% CI 0.5-1.2; n=109, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms ;not improved/worse' RR=0.87,95% CI 0.7-1.2; n=109, Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms ;not improved/worse' RR=0.69,95% CI 0.5-1.0, NNT=6 95% CI 4-162). Medium-term study attrition was significantly less for people allocated the herbal/antipsychotic mix (n=897, four RCTs, RR=0.34,95% CI 0.2-0.7, NNT=23,95% CI18-43).
Conclusions:
Results suggest that combining Chinese herbal medicine with antipsychotics is beneficial.
