Identifying Chinese herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome: implications from a nationwide database.

Hsing-Yu Chen,Jen-Wu Huang,Sien-Hung Yang,Jiun-Liang Chen,Yu-Chun Chen,Yi-Hsuan Lin,Irene H Su,Ben-Shian Huang

doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-206

Abstract

BackgroundPremenstrual syndrome (PMS) occurs in women during their reproductive age with a quite negative impact on their daily lives. Women with PMS experience a wide range of physical or psychological symptoms and seek treatment for them. Chinese herb medicine (CHM) is commonly used for PMS and the goal of this study is to investigate the prescription patterns of CHM for PMS by using a nationwide database.MethodsPrescriptions of CHM were obtained from two million beneficiaries randomly sampled from the National Health Insurance Research Database, a nationwide database in Taiwan. The ICD-9 code 625.4 was used to identify patients with PMS. Association rule mining and social network analysis were used to explore both the combinations and the core treatments for PMS.ResultsDuring 1998-2011, a total of 14,312 CHM prescriptions for PMS were provided. Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San (JWXYS) was the CHM which had the highest prevalence (37.5% of all prescriptions) and also the core of prescription network for PMS. For combination of two CHM, JWXYS with Cyperus rotundus L. was prescribed most frequently, 7.7% of all prescriptions, followed by JWXYS with Leonurus heterophyllus Sweet, 5.9%, and Cyperus rotundus L. with Leonurus heterophyllus Sweet, 5.6%.ConclusionsJWXYS-centered CHM combinations were most commonly prescribed for PMS. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first pharmaco-epidemiological study to review CHM treatments for PMS. However, the efficacy and safety of these commonly used CHM were still lacking. The results of this study provide valuable references for further clinical trials and bench studies.

Highlights

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) occurs in women during their reproductive age with a quite negative impact on their daily lives
During 1998-2011, a total of 14,312 visits were made by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) visitors, and Chinese herb medicine (CHM) was the most commonly used modality of TCM, accounting for 96.6% of all visits (13,820 visits)
single herb (SH) were usually used as an adjuvant to herbal formula (HF), Cyperus rotundus L. and Leonurus heterophyllus Sweet, both SH, were prescribed even more frequently than the HF DGSYS in this population

Summary

Introduction

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) occurs in women during their reproductive age with a quite negative impact on their daily lives. Women with PMS experience a wide range of physical or psychological symptoms and seek treatment for them. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a common gynecological disease among women in reproductive age. PMS symptoms have been attributed to fluctuations in levels of neurotransmitters in the central nervous system and/or cyclic hormonal changes. Central nervous system neurotransmitters such as serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) appear to contribute to the pathogenesis of PMS [6,7,8,9]. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the mainstay treatment of PMS, and hormone therapy to suppress ovulation is often used as well. Other psychoactive drugs, such as alprazolam or buspirone, have been used for PMS with less effect [8,12]

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