Practice of traditional Chinese medicine for psycho-behavioral intervention improves quality of life in cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Cancer patients suffer from diverse symptoms, including depression, anxiety, pain, and fatigue and lower quality of life (QoL) during disease progression. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine psychobehavioral interventions (TCM PBIs) on improving QoL by meta-analysis.

The Quality of Life Influences of Psycho-behavioral Interventions on Chinese Traditional Medicine Science

“…Acupuncture, the common form of TCM PBIs, improved quality of life via reducing depression, fatigue, diarrhea and gastrointestinal distress. Therapeutic Chinese massage reduced symptoms, such as flatulence and intestinal paralysis postsurgery [4].…”

“…Chinese massage reduced time to first flatulence and intestinal peristaltic sound following surgery [4].…”

“…Patients who underwent Tai Chi had less postoperative upper limb lymphedema, Tai Chi increased circulating concentrations of IgA, IgG and IgM and improved lung function, sleep quality and limb muscle strength in cancer patients. Tai Chi also alleviated fatigue and reduced distress [4].…”

“…In particular, acupuncture relieved fatigue reduced diarrhea and shortened the time to first flatulence despite failing to relieve symptoms of depression [4]. significantly improve their quality of life.…”

“…The early focus of PBIs aims at improving mental health [2] but has extended to relieve adverse side effects of cancer chemotherapy through relaxation, hypnosis, and distraction pathway [3][4][5]. With greater acceptance of PBIs in the medical community during the past decade become a very promising approach for quality improvement in cancer patients [6][7][8][9].…”