Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in functional dyspepsia: A meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for the treatment of functional dyspepsia (FD).

Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and four other Chinese electronic databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biological Medical Database (CBM), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP), and WanFang Database were used to search (up to Feb, 2016) for randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials recruiting adults with FD treated with CHM. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted based on Cochrane standards using Review Manager software.

Fourteen publications (1424 patients) were included. Evidence revealed that CHM was more efficacious than the placebo in improving global dyspepsia symptoms (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.31–1.60), Chinese medicine syndrome (CMS) (RR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.23–1.50), and quality of life (SMD, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.15–0.45) in FD patients. Furthermore, the difference in the incidence of adverse events between CHM and placebo groups had no statistical significance (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.66–1.70).

This meta-analysis demonstrates that CHM has a therapeutic potential in treating FD with a certain safety. However, due to the restricted number of trials included, well-planned, long-term studies are necessary to provide credible evidence.