[Outcome indicators in randomized controlled trials on traditional Chinese medicine intervention for tension-type headache in recent five years].

To evaluate the application of outcome indicators in randomized controlled trials(RCTs) concerning the treatment of tension-type headache(TTH) with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) in recent five years, so as to provide a basis for the study of core outcome set(COS) for TCM intervention in TTH. The RCTs on TCM treatment of TTH in recent five years were systematically retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, EMbase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov and China Clinical Trial Registry. After literature screening, data extraction and evaluation of the risk of bias, the outcome indicators in the included RCTs were subjected to qualitative analysis. The preliminary search yielded 19 042 articles, and 10 983 were left after the elimination of duplication. Finally, 52 RCTs(48 in Chinese and 4 in English) were included for qualitative analysis. The outcome indicators of RCTs included in this study were classified into seven domains: TCM syndrome, symptom and sign, physical and chemical detection, quality of life, long-term prognosis, economic evaluation, and safety event. The findings demonstrated that headache characteristic index in the symptom and sign domain was the index with the highest reporting frequency and reporting rate. Seventeen RCTs used TCM syndrome score as the outcome indicator. Further analysis revealed that there existed such problems in research design as non-distinction between primary and secondary outcome indicators, great difference in the adopted measurement tools for outcome indicators, and the neglect of measurement time of outcome indicators. Moreover, the syndrome indicators reflecting TCM advantages, objective evaluation indicators, safety and health-economic indicators were lacking. These limitations have affected the quality and reliability of RCTs on TTH treatment with TCM. It is suggested that the efficacy and characteristics of TCM should be combined into current clinical research, and the COS in RCTs regarding TCM treatment of TTH should be established according to internationally recognized standard procedures.

[Study on establishing a methodology of comprehensive clinical evaluation for Chinese patent medicine based on health technology assessment].

At present, most of Chinese patent medicines have problems, such as weak scientific basis, unclear clinical value evaluation, etc., which lead to the lack of sufficient evidence for the entry into the essential medicine list, medical insurance catalog and other important health resource allocation tools. This has a negative impact on the development of traditional Chinese medicine. It is urgent to establish a comprehensive evaluation methodology system of Chinese patent medicine in China. There are at least three reasons including producing evidence for clinical rational use scientifically, developing an objective and transparent selecting strategy, eventuating and highlighting its clinical value. The process and method of health technology assessment(HTA) can provide reference for the establishment of comprehensive evaluation method of Chinese patent medicine. However, HTA is rarely carried out in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. The latest domestic and international research showed that HTA combined with multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA) can increase the transparency of decision-making and improve the quality of decision-making. The combined two formed the EVIDEM framework, which is conducive to drug selection and its clinical use. In this paper, the EVIDEM framework was introduced to establish the methodology framework of the comprehensive clinical evaluation system of Chinese patent medicine. A preliminary research idea has been put forward. In the future, we can establish a set of comprehensive clinical evaluation methods for Chinese patent medicine in cooperation with relevant national drug decision-making departments and management departments. It is believed that such cooperation could promote the full implementation of the re-evaluation for Chinese patent medicine.