Citation

Chen KY, Wu MY, Yang PS, Chiang JH, Hsu CY, Chen CY, Yen HR. J. Ethnopharmacol. 2018; 226: 168-175.

Affiliation

Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan; School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, 404, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Research Center for Chinese Herbal Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Chinese Medicine Research Center, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Department of Biotechnology, Asia University, Taichung 413, Taiwan. Electronic address: hungrongyen@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jep.2018.08.021

PMID

30118835

Abstract

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for over two thousand years to treat motor impairments corresponding to the clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease (PD).

AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aimed to investigate the prescription of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for the management of PD and further determine whether CHM can improve motor function and decrease the risk of incident fracture.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients older than 40 years newly diagnosed with PD between January 1997 and December 2010 were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) and followed up until the end of 2013. We used 1:1 frequency matching by age, sex, index year, and initial diagnostic year to compare the TCM users and non-TCM users. We used a Cox regression model and the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate the risk of developing fracture among the TCM and non-TCM users.

RESULTS: In total, 7197 patients older than 40 years were newly diagnosed with PD between 1997 and 2010 in Taiwan. Among these patients, 3,456 were TCM users, and 3,730 were non-TCM users. We compared 2,007 PD patients with comparable demographic characteristics and comorbidity profiles between the two cohorts. During the follow-up period, compared with the non-TCM cohort, fewer patients in the TCM cohort had incident fractures (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.5, 95% CI: 0.44-0.56). The cumulative incidence of fracture was lower in the TCM cohort (log-rank test, p<0.0001). Shi-Chang-Pu (Acorus gramineus Aiton), Yuan-Zhi (Polygala tenuifolia Willd), Bei-Mu (Fritillaria cirrhosa D. Don), Hai-Piao-Xiao (Sepiella maindronide Rochebrune; Sepia esculenta Hoyle), and Tian-Ma (Gastrodia elata Blume) constituted the core Chinese herbal medicine prescriptions used to treat PD patients.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study identified the core prescription pattern for the management of PD in Taiwan. Complementary CHM therapy was associated with a reduced risk of fracture in PD patients.

Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

Chinese Herbal Medicine; Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM); Fracture; National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD); Parkinson's Disease (PD); Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)