Traditional Chinese medicine increased the effects of Western medicine on anti-COVID19: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 outbreak spread in China and is a threat to the world. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat various symptoms and diseases in China and has been demonstrated to be effective. Chinese Medicine may be beneficial in the treatment of COVID-19. So we updated a meta-analysis to fully evaluate the strength of evidence supporting Chinese Medicine treatment for COVID-19. Methods: Six databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, CBM and CNKI) were searched until 12 September 2023. The Cochrane bias risk tool was used for risk evaluation and JADAD scale for assessing the quality. Meta-analysis was carried out by Stata 15.1. Begg’s test was used for publication bias. Results: A total of 4128 COVID-19 patients in 38 eligible RCT studies were included. Compared with Western medicine alone, integrated TCM significantly shortened the duration of fever [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (−1.28, −0.99)] and length of hospitalization [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (−3.23, −2.06)] and nucleic acid turning negative time [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (−2.97, −1.50)] and reduced the severity illness rate [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (0.29, 0.57)] and improved CT changes [OR = 2.21, 95%CI (1.78, 2.74)] and a series of clinical symptoms including fever [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.42, 2.65)], cough [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.71, 3.25)], fatigue [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.50, 2.90)], muscle pain [[Formula: see text], 95%CI(1.65, 13.68)], expectoration [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.60, 5.20)], breathless [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (3.10, 13.17)], chest distress [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.20, 3.18)], dyspnea [[Formula: see text], 95%CI (1.65, 16.76)] of COVID-19. Conclusion: TCM could be a complementary medicine to improve COVID-19.