Background: Diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (D-IBS) is the main subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In recent years, more than half of IBS patients have received complementary and alternative medicine. Traditional Chinese herbal formula is widely used in Asia, and clinical studies have also found that Chinese herbal formula could significantly improve abdominal pain and diarrhea. We plan to carry out a randomized, controlled, double blind, clinical studies to observe the clinical efficacy of Qinghua Zhixie decoction in the treatment of D-IBS. Methods: Four hundred sixty-four participants will be randomly assigned to the treatment group and control group. Patients in both groups would take medications and stimulations simultaneously. The outcomes of IBS symptom severity score, quality of life, psychological states, and recurrence rate will be recorded. Statistics will be analyzed with the SPSS 22.0. Conclusions: The findings of the study will identify the safety and efficacy of Qinghua Zhixie decoction in the treatment of D-IBS. Trial registration: OSF Registration number: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/C8MHW.

BackgroundThere is conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD). This study aimed to assess previous systematic reviews/meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) on the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat PPD.MethodSRs/MAs regarding the use of acupuncture for PPD were identified from the establishment of digital databases to November 2021. The Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) was applied to evaluate the methodological quality of included SRs/MAs. The Grades of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) was utilized to evaluate the evidence quality for outcomes of interest.ResultsSix studies that conducted quantitative syntheses were included. According to AMSTAR-2, the methodological quality of these SRs/MAs was critically low owing to limitations of items 2, 4, and 7. According to GRADE, no study included high-quality evidence and most studies included low-quality evidence.ConclusionsAcupuncture m be beneficial for PPD, however, due to limitations of current evidence and inconsistent findings, further studies are needed to provide stronger evidence to draw definitive conclusions.