Traditional Chinese Medicine Strategy for Patients with Tourette Syndrome Based on Clinical Efficacy and Safety: A Meta-Analysis of 47 Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Objective. Although increasing evidence reveals the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its safety on Tourette Syndrome (TS) patients, whether TCM is indeed improving TS remains unclear. The purpose of the current study is to perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM on treating TS patients. Method. An elaborate search strategy was conducted based on several databases including Medline, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, CINAHL, CBM, VIP, CNKI, and Wanfang Data in order to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from their inception to as late as May 1st, 2020. General information and data needing analysis were extracted simultaneously for the necessity of various analyses such as descriptive analysis and metaquantitative analysis. Results. Forty-seven trials with 5437 TS patients in total were eventually included according to our criteria. All trials were conducted in China, and the publication years ranged from 2004 to 2017. In terms of clinical efficacy, clinical symptoms of patients with TCM were more likely to be improved compared with the control group (odds ratio, OR = − 1.29 , 95% confidence interval, CI: -2.54 to -0.06, I 2 = 0.00 % ). As to the outcome of recurrence rate, the pooled results revealed that the TCM group was more inclined to stabilize the recurrence ( OR = 0.44 , 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.78, I 2 = 0.00 % ). Similar results were observed in adverse reaction ( OR = 0.32 , 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.43, I 2 = 32.90 % ). Conclusion. The results of our study recommend applying TCM to treat TS patients for better efficacy and safety. Results need to be interpreted cautiously due to certain limitations in our study.

Is Traditional Chinese Medicine Effective in Treating Tic Disorders (Tourette Syndrome)? A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…However, the evidence regarding TCM's effectiveness and safety in the treatment of TS is conflicting. For example, in their meta-analysis, Wang et al [20] studied 47 randomized controlled trials from 2004 to 2014 and recommended TCM to treat TS patients with better efficacy and safety.…”

Emerging therapies and recent advances for Tourette syndrome

“…Alternative therapies like Chinese traditional medicine (CTM) are shown to have some benefit for the treatment of TS although their efficacy is still up for debate. A metanalysis of the 26 trials that utilized YGTSS to assess tic severity found that those who used CTM showed significant improvement in YGTSS-TTS compared to those in the control groups (SMD = −0:21, 95% CI: −0.29 to −0.14, I2 = 12:30%) [ 63 ]. The 5-ling granule (5-LGr) and Ningdong granule are common CTM used to treat TS in China.…”

Treatment of Tourette syndrome by acupuncture combined with Chinese medicine based on syndrome differentiation: A review

“…A meta-analysis of 47 randomized controlled trials [65] showed that Changma Xifeng tablets and Jiuwei Xifeng granules had obvious clinical efficacy in the treatment of TS, but their specific therapeutic effects need more scientific verification.…”