Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Sep;9(3):100477.
doi: 10.1016/j.imr.2020.100477. Epub 2020 Jul 28.

Chinese medical drugs for coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Wentai Pang  1 , Zhi Liu  1 , Nan Li  1 , Yuyun Li  1 , Fengwen Yang  1 , Bo Pang  1 , Xinyao Jin  1 , Wenke Zheng  1 , Junhua Zhang  1
Affiliations
Review

Chinese medical drugs for coronavirus disease 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Wentai Pang et al. Integr Med Res. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Integration of Chinese medical drugs (CMD) and western medicine (WM) has been widely used in the treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CMD for COVID-19.

Method: A literature search was performed in six databases from injection to June 2020. Both randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs were considered as eligible. The quality of included RCTs were assessed by Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, and Review Manager 5.3 software was used to do meta-analysis.

Result: Eleven studies with 1259 patients were included in this study. CMD included herbal decoction and Chinese patent medicine. The methodological quality was evaluated as generally unclear. The results of meta-analysis showed that the integration of CMD and WM had better efficacy than WM in number of patients turned to severe and critical type (RR = 0.47, 95% CI=[0.32, 0.69], P < 0.0001), length of hospital stay (MD= -7.95, 95% CI=[-14.66, -1.24], P = 0.02), defervescence time (MD= -1.20, 95% CI=[-2.03, -0.38], P = 0.004), cough resolution rate (RR = 1.37, 95% CI=[1.15, 1.64], P = 0.0004), fatigue resolution rate (RR = 1.37, 95% CI=[1.02, 1.83], P = 0.04), and tachypnea resolution rate (RR = 2.20, 95% CI=[1.11, 4.39], P = 0.02). As for safety, there was no significant difference between two groups.

Conclusion: CMD may bring potential benefit to patients suffered from COVID-19. However, the quality of included trials is not good enough. High quality study with core outcome set are still required.

Keywords: Chinese medical drug; Core outcome set; Coronavirus disease 2019; Integrative medicine; Meta analysis; Systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of study screening.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Risks of bias. (A) Risks of bias of the included studies. The authors reviewed each item’s risk of bias for each included study. (B) Risks of bias of individual studies. +: low risk of bias; −: high risk of bias;? : unclear risk of bias.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison of Chinese medical drugs and Western medicine (CMD + WM) vs. Western medicine (WM) on (A) Number of patients turned to severe and critical type; (B) Number of all-cause death.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zhu N., Zhang D., Wang W., Li X., Yang B., Song J. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:727–733. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gao Y.Q. Therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 based on its pathophysiological mechanisms. Chin J Pathophysiol. 2020;36 568-572+576. [In Chinese, English abstract]
    1. Liu J., Zheng X., Tong Q., Li W., Wang B., Sutter K. Overlapping and discrete aspects of the pathology and pathogenesis of the emerging human pathogenic coronaviruses SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and 2019-nCoV. J Med Virol. 2020;92:491–494. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cao X. COVID-19: immunopathology and its implications for therapy. Nat Rev Immunol. 2020;20:269–270. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang H.J., Du S.H., Yue X., Chen C.X. Review and prospect of pathological features of corona virus disease. Fa Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2020;36:16–20. - PubMed