Chinese herbal medicine for dyspnea and persistent symptoms of long COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

作者：Miranda Sin‐Man Tsang, Iris Wenyu Zhou, Anthony Lin Zhang, Charlie Changli Xue · 发表于：Journal of Chinese Integrative Medicine · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.joim.2025.01.001 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Long-Term Effects of COVID-19、Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research、Respiratory and Cough-Related Research

Over 65 million people have long COVID. Evidence for using Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) to treat long COVID is growing. A systematic review of evidence for guiding clinical decision is warranted. To examine the effects and safety of CHM in alleviating the severity of dyspnea, fatigue, exercise intolerance, depression, anxiety and insomnia in long COVID adults based on registered randomized clinical trials (RCT). Search strategy: World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry were searched for registered trial protocols from database inception to February 10, 2023. English (PubMed, Embase, AMED and CINAHL) and Chinese databases (CNKI, Wanfang Data and CQVIP) were then searched to identify relevant publications from December 2019 through April 6, 2023. Inclusion criteria: Registered RCTs that compared the effects of Chinese herbal medicines or Chinese herbal formulas against a control treatment (i.e., the placebo or usual care) in adults with persistent symptoms of long COVID. The primary outcome of dyspnea, and secondary outcomes of fatigue, exercise intolerance, depression, anxiety and insomnia were measured using validated tools at the end of the treatment. Data extraction and analysis: Data were extracted, and eligible RCTs were evaluated using version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations independently by two researcher...