Title: Effectiveness and Safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Insomnia a Literature Review
Abstract: Objectives: To review clinical trials on the efficacy and safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for insomnia. The interventions included acupuncture, herbal formula, Tuina massage and other modalities of TCM.
Methods: PubMed, Google Scholar, VIP and CINTCM were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that tested TCM for Insomnia and reported between 2000 and 2007. All of them were reviewed for their safety and adverse event reports as well.
They could be placebo controlled or non-placebo controlled blinded or non-blinded clinical trials. Literature published in Chinese language was also included. Case reports, case series, uncontrolled clinical trials, and animal studies were excluded.
Results: Twenty two RCTs that qualified our criteria were included in this review; of which fifteen were on acupuncture and the remaining seven were on Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). Both acupuncture and CHM were tested either as an adjuvant to conventional medicine/tuina massage or as an independent treatment modality. The control groups (CGs) received either conventional care alone or sometimes a placebo. Results of all acupuncture trials reported an improvement (90.8-96.87%) in the symptoms of Insomnia over CG (45-90%). Similar positive outcomes were reported by CHM trials as well (Percentage of improvement 89.5-100% in the treatment group (TG) vs. 63.2%-85.53% in the CG). Despite no differences in the outcomes when acupuncture was tested alone or when it was tested as an adjuvant in the above trials, most of the Twenty two RCTs we reviewed, reported promising results. However, there were many limitations in these trials, which included lack of blinding, use of non-standardized outcome measures, insufficient treatment details, and no clear details of randomization. Additionally, adverse events were rarely reported.
Conclusion: TCM can be a useful treatment for insomnia compared to conventional medicine or placebo. However, the poor quality of the trials suggest further rigorous trials to substantiate the results.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-12-01
Language: en
Type: review
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