Effects of the non-pharmacological interventions of traditional Chinese medicine on postpartum depression: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Abstract

Background:Postpartum depression (PPD) has become one of the common disorders during the postpartum period. The non-pharmacological interventions of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have achieved good results in the treatment of PPD. However, the efficacy of different non-pharmacological interventions of TCM for PPD has not been fully elucidated. Due to the large number of non-pharmacological intervention of TCM modalities, the selection of appropriate non-pharmacological interventions of TCM has become an urgent clinical problem. The aim of this network meta-analysis was to explore the best choice for different non-pharmacological interventions of TCM for PPD.Methods:PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Embase, China Scientific Journal Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Wanfang Data were searched to identify the randomized controlled trials of non-pharmacological interventions of TCM for PPD from the inception to February 2022. Two researchers will be independently responsible for literature screening, data extraction, and assessment of their quality. Standard pair-wise and Bayesian network meta-analysis will be performed to compare the efficacy of different non-pharmacological interventions of TCM for PPD via Stata 14.0 and WinBUGS1.4 software.Results:The results of this meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.Conclusions:The conclusion of this systematic review will provide evidence for the selection of an optimal non-pharmacological interventions of TCM for PPD.Ethics and dissemination:Ethical approval is not required for this study. The systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, presented at conferences, and shared on social media platforms.OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER:DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/TM96G.