Chinese herbal medicine for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Age Associated Memory Impairment: a review of randomised controlled trials

Abstract

This review assesses the effectiveness and safety of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Age Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI). Electronic searches of English and Chinese databases and hand searches of Chinese journal holdings were conducted. Randomised controlled trials comparing orally administered CHM with placebo, no intervention or other therapy were considered. Ginkgo biloba was excluded. Ten trials met inclusion criteria. Eight different CHM were investigated. Methodological quality was assessed using the Jadad scale and five studies scored three or above. Two studies compared CHM with placebo and eight with another intervention. This review found an overall benefit on some outcome measures for the eight CHMs involved in the 10 RCTs but methodological and data reporting issues were evident. Meta-analysis of three studies found the effects of the CHMs were at least equivalent to piracetam on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. No severe adverse events were reported.

Chinese Herbal Medicine for Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Outcomes

“…Previous reviews of clinical studies have reported potential effectiveness of some Chinese herbs and herbal formulae for MCI but these were conducted five or more years ago, so an update is warranted (May et al ., ; Han et al . ).…”

Demographic and medication characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine users among dementia patients in Taiwan: A nationwide database study

“…Such difference might be attributed to the high accessibility and full coverage of TCM in Taiwan's national health insurance scheme (Chen et al, 2007). Moreover, several clinical studies showed that TCM formulae could be safe and beneficial to dementia patients (Man et al, 2008;May et al, 2009), and such knowledge might encourage TCM use (Hillmer et al, 2006). The incidence rate of dementia in Taiwan over the 12 years of study was 1.8%, which is relatively low compared with former cohort studies in Chinese population (Wu et al, 2013).…”

Natural Compounds as Therapeutic Agents for Amyloidogenic Diseases

“…From our previous analysis of well-designed, randomized double-blind controlled trials on Chinese herbal medicines beneficial for the improvement of cognitive function, we found that neuroprotective benefits of suppression of oxidative stress as the most common feature provided by single herbs or herbal mixtures (May et al 2009.…”