Insights of Chinese medicine syndrome study: from current status to future prospects

Syndrome differentiation is a key feature of Chinese medicine (CM) system. With CM receiving more and more attention from the mainstream medical systems, researchers from both traditional medical systems and the Western medical system are putting more effort into studying why and how the CM system works, particularly about CM syndromes. This paper reviews the current status of syndrome study and its future development. The major aspects include: (1) Usage of syndrome differentiation in clinical practice; (2) Formalization of syndrome diagnostic criteria; (3) Evidence-based determination of the common syndrome(s) of a disease; (4) Systems biology study of syndromes; and (5) Usage of syndrome in randomized controlled trials. It is expected to integrate the syndrome concept into the main stream medical system, in terms of diagnosis, treatment and prevention.