Improving research on the efficacy, effectiveness, and harms of traditional chinese medicine.

Jin-Ling Tang,Vincent Chi-Ho Chung,Allan Hackshaw,Bao-Yan Liu,Li-Xing Lao

doi:10.1155/2014/657679

Abstract

Improving research on the efficacy, effectiveness, and harms of traditional chinese medicine.

Highlights

Blinding is important for preventing biases but difficult to achieve in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) trials as with other therapies such as surgical operations
The most rigorous method for demonstrating the effectiveness of medical interventions is the randomized controlled trial (RCT), and this has been the case for many decades
The RCT is most effective for evaluating relatively simple, standardized therapies, but many TCM interventions, such as herbal therapies, are considered to be most effective when tailored to the individual

Summary

Introduction

Blinding is important for preventing biases but difficult to achieve in TCM trials as with other therapies such as surgical operations. The RCT is most effective for evaluating relatively simple, standardized therapies, but many TCM interventions, such as herbal therapies, are considered to be most effective when tailored to the individual (which often involves a combination of different herbs, to be prepared in a specific way). Many different combinations of herbs may be used in the same trial and a large sample size is needed to examine many potential subgroup analyses in order to find out which treatments are effective and which are not, not to say subgroup analysis has its own problems.

Results

Conclusion