Therapeutic effect of Chinese herbal medicines for post-stroke depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of combination of CHM with routine western medicines versus routine western medicines alone in patients with post-stroke depression (PSD). Methods: Electronic databases such as PubMed, EmBase, Cochrane library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure were systematically searched from inception till October 2019. Studies designed as randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and that investigated the therapeutic effects of CHM plus routine western medicines (CHM group) versus routine western medicines alone (control group) in PSD patients were eligible. The relative risk (RR) and weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to assess the categories and continuous data using random-effects model. Software STATA was applied to perform statistical analysis (Version 10.0; StataCorp, TX,). Results: A total of 18 RCTs involving a total of 1,367 PSD patients were selected for final analysis. The effective rate in CHM group was significantly higher than that in control group (RR: 1.18; 95%CI: 1.12–1.24; P 
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Source Type: research