Rapid health technology assessment of four oral Chinese patent medicines in treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders

Abstract

To provide proof of the evidence-based medicine and decision-making information for the clinical decision of functional gastrointestinal disorders(FGIDs), this study evaluated and compared the efficacy, safety, and economy of four oral Chinese patent medicines(CPMs) in the treatment of FGIDs using the method of rapid health technology assessment. The literature was systematically retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, EMbase, PubMed, Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.gov from the establishment of the databases to May 1, 2022. Two evaluators screened out the literature, extracted data, evaluated the quality of the literature, and descriptively analyzed the results according to the prepared standard. Eventually, 16 studies were included, all of which was rando-mized controlled trial(RCT). The results showed that Renshen Jianpi Tablets, Renshen Jianpi Pills, Shenling Baizhu Granules, and Buzhong Yiqi Granules all had certain effects on the treatment of FGIDs. Renshen Jianpi Tablets treated FGIDs and persistent diarrhea. Shenling Baizhu Granules treated diarrhea with irritable bowel syndrome and FGIDs. Buzhong Yiqi Granules treated diarrhea with irritable bowel syndrome, FGIDs, and chronic diarrhea in children. Renshen Jianpi Pills treated chronic diarrhea. The four oral CPMs all have certain effects on the treatment of FGIDs and have specific advantages for specific patients. Compared with other CPMs, Renshen Jianpi Tablets have higher clinical universality. However, there are problems such as insufficient clinical research evidence, generally low quality of evidence, lack of comparative analysis among medicines, and lack of academic evaluation. More high-quality clinical research and the economic research should be carried out in the future, so as to provide more evidence for the evaluation of the four CPMs.