A scoping review protocol of oral Chinese traditional medicine for vascular dementia

Abstract

Background: Vascular dementia is a common form of dementia which is caused by problems with the blood supply to the brain. Some but not all people with vascular dementia have had strokes. Western medicines licensed to treat vascular dementia are limited. Oral Chinese traditional medicines are often used to treat it in China. Oral Chinese traditional medicine in this review is defined as the oral Chinese Patent Medicine with a certain dosage form of medicinal substances recorded in Chinese materia medica or used in folk medicine. It is a commercial Chinese medicine preparation with standardized in source, nature, collection, processing, dispensing, actions, effects and uses, and approved by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) and National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA). Oral Chinese traditional medicines are categorized according to the nature of medicinals (the basic properties of a medicinal). Despite of symptomatic descriptions as 'dementia', 'memory loss', and 'Cognitive deficit' in some of the drug instructions, drug instructions rarely include 'vascular dementia' as one of the indications specifically. However, increasing studies on oral Chinese traditional medicines for the treatment of VaD give thoughts to deliberate about their applications for VaD. Recent studies of oral Chinese traditional medicine have demonstrated in vitro biological activity and therapeutic effects in animals, but the published clinical evidence has not been systematically appraised. INPLASY registration number: This protocol was registered with the International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (INPLASY) on 19 July 2021 and was last u p d a t e d o n 1 9 J u l y 2 0 2 1 ( r e g i s t r a t i o n n u m b e r INPLASY202170057).