Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Study Comparing Traditional Chinese Medicine with Western Medicine in the Treatment of Diabetes / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the curative efficacy of Chinese medicine vs. western medicine in the treatment of diabetes. METHODS:The randomized controlled trials(RCTs) comparing western medicine with traditional Chinese medicine alone or combination of Chinese medicine and western medicine in the treatment of diabetes were systematically evaluated. Meta-analysis of the cited trials was performed by evidence-based medicine method with Revman 4.2 software for statistical analysis. RESULTS:A total of 14 RCTs met our inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in clinical efficacy in the treatment of diabetes; however,the diabetic patients treated with integrated Chinese medicine and western medicine showed much better efficacy than those treated with western medicine alone. CONCLUSION:Treatment of diabetes with traditional Chinese medicine plus western medicine has more advantages; however,this conclusion remains to be confirmed further by studies of high quality given the low quality in test methodology.