Abstract
Objective Although increasing evidence reveals the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its safety on Tourette Syndrome (TS) patients, whether TCM is indeed improving TS remains unclear. The purpose of the current study is to perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM on treating TS patients. Method An elaborate search strategy was conducted based on several databases including Medline, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, CINAHL, CBM, VIP, CNKI, and Wanfang Data in order to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from their inception to as late as May 1st, 2020. General information and data needing analysis were extracted simultaneously for the necessity of various analyses such as descriptive analysis and metaquantitative analysis. Results Forty-seven trials with 5437 TS patients in total were eventually included according to our criteria. All trials were conducted in China, and the publication years ranged from 2004 to 2017. In terms of clinical efficacy, clinical symptoms of patients with TCM were more likely to be improved compared with the control group (odds ratio, OR = −1.29, 95% confidence interval, CI: -2.54 to -0.06, I2 = 0.00%). As to the outcome of recurrence rate, the pooled results revealed that the TCM group was more inclined to stabilize the recurrence (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.78, I2 = 0.00%). Similar results were observed in adverse reaction (OR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.43, I2 = 32.90%). Conclusion The results of our study recommend applying TCM to treat TS patients for better efficacy and safety. Results need to be interpreted cautiously due to certain limitations in our study.
Highlights
Tourette Syndrome (TS), a type of neurodevelopment disturbance, is commonly characterized by the occurrence of sudden, brief, intermittent movements or vocalization, with a high incidence rate among young children [1] and over 1% globally [2]
Guanfacine and clonidine are recommended as the first choice in the treatment of TS patients, along with atypical drugs functioning as dopamine receptor antagonists, namely, antipsychotics such as tiapride and haloperidol, whose efficacy has been proved in numerous clinical trials [7, 8]
Patients of 24 studies were not diagnosed with TS, and 27 studies were not launched as randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
Summary
Tourette Syndrome (TS), a type of neurodevelopment disturbance, is commonly characterized by the occurrence of sudden, brief, intermittent movements or vocalization, with a high incidence rate among young children (three to eight cases out of 1000) [1] and over 1% globally [2]. Symptoms of TS patients are frequently accompanied by cooccurring disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia [3, 4]. The symptoms and complications of TS will trigger a series of consequences for both the patients and their families, even the society sometimes, with TS patients’ life quality harmed, financial burden increased, and social resources consumed [5, 6]. Guanfacine and clonidine are recommended as the first choice in the treatment of TS patients, along with atypical drugs functioning as dopamine receptor antagonists, namely, antipsychotics such as tiapride and haloperidol, whose efficacy has been proved in numerous clinical trials [7, 8]. In the absence of a universally accepted and reasonable treatment and with new clinical
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