A panel study to evaluate quality of life assessments in patients suffering from allergic rhinitis after treatment with a Chinese herbal nasal drop

Abstract

Allergic rhinitis impairs quality of life (QOL). To assess the changes in QOL of patients with perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR) after treatment with Allergic Rhinitis Nose Drops (ARND), 35 patients were divided into 2 groups in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled study, with a cross-over arrangement over 7 weeks, applying ARND or placebo. Group A (n = 20) started with ARND first for 2 weeks followed by a 3-week washout before placebo for the last 2 weeks, while Group B (n = 15) started with placebo first and finished with ARND after washout. The changes in Clinical Symptoms Score (CSS) and QOL were observed. A decrease in CSS was observed in patients of both groups after treatment with ARND, but no change was observed with the placebo. Group A patients also showed significant improvements in complexion and sleep (P < 0.05 for both) after treatment with ARND, but no change with the placebo. Group B patients showed significant improvements in appetite and digestion (P < 0.01) as well as joy (P < 0.05) after cross-over treatment with ARND, but no change with the placebo. ARND may have a therapeutic effect by relieving clinical symptoms and improving the QOL in patients with PAR.

Nasal Drug Delivery in Traditional Persian Medicine

“…A number of nasal drops have been formulated in contemporary pharmacy that may be inspired by the ancient knowledge. Also many clinical investigations were carried out on the efficacy of herbal nasal drops in current medicine (39, 40). Solid nasal dosage forms with the aim of systemic purposes are of novel pharmaceutical dosage form (41), while in traditional records this form was fully accepted for systemic illnesses (15).…”

The effects of two Chinese herbal medicinal formulae vs. placebo controls for treatment of allergic rhinitis: a randomised controlled trial

“…The findings also provided evidence on the significance of prescription of Chinese herbal medicines based on assessment results of syndrome (‘ Zheng ’) and body constitution, which reflected the structure, metabolism, and functioning of the main body organs that contributed to determining one’s susceptibility to pathogenic factors [14,15]. All participants in this trial were assessed by a CM practitioner to confirm their ‘Qi-deficiency’ and/or ‘Yang-deficiency’ before being included in this study and provided them with the CS or YS.…”

“…It is noteworthy that two strategies adopted in this trial might facilitate the participants’ completion of their treatments, including regular consultation and assessment of their health condition during the treatment period and the use of medication in syrup format which was considered more user-friendly, with a better taste and more accurate dosage than conventional administration of herbal medicine. Therefore, the 4-week CS treatment was found to be more consistent and have substantive therapeutic effects on patient outcomes than other clinical trials of herbal medicinal treatment of AR [15,17-21]. Nevertheless, future research in a large-sized, representative sample with diverse socio-demographic and illness-related characteristics (e.g., wider age ranges, living environments, and family medical history), and a longer-term follow-up (e.g., one year), is recommended to examine a more consistent and conclusive curative effect of the CS before its application for usual treatment.…”

“…Two recent CM studies reported that people with AR who received a 4-week YS treatment reported a significant reduction of AR symptoms and serum IgE or allergen reactivity at immediately and/or 2–4 weeks after intervention [22,24]. Similar to the abovementioned controlled trials [15-21], the YS could not consistently demonstrate significant therapeutic effects on most of the other clinical outcomes such as patients’ body constitution and quality of life, as well as its longer-term effects (e.g., >8 weeks).…”

“…Nevertheless, a minority of patients with AR (<5%) can present with other patterns of body constitution, such as ‘Yin-deficiency’ with ‘Yang-hyperactivity’ [14], and thus require a different medicinal treatment from the majority of those with ‘Qi-deficiency’ and ‘Yang-deficiency’ as described above. Seven randomised controlled trials on the effects of Chinese herbal medicinal treatment of AR [15-21] were performed between 2000 and 2013 (Table 1). Different methods of assessment and evaluation on treatment outcomes (e.g., skin and multiple allergen tests, Ear, Nose and Throat specialty assessment, and blood samples for serum IgE, liver, and/or renal function tests) were used, mostly from the approaches to Western medicine.…”