Clinical Evidence of Treatment of Constipation with Oral Chinese Patent Medicine： A Scoping Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

This study systematically and comprehensively sorted out the application status of Chinese patent medicines for the treatment of constipation in the clinic， to provide scientific evidence for future research directions and clinical drug use in this field. Based on the method of scoping review， the Chinese patent medicines for the treatment of constipation were retrieved from three drug lists to obtain the medicines that needed to be evaluated. A comprehensive and systematic search was carried out on the included studies on the treatment of constipation by Chinese patent medicines through eight Chinese and English databases， and the included studies were integrated and analyzed. The results were displayed in combination with charts. Thirty-four Chinese patent medicines and 118 studies were included in this study. According to the efficacies， Chinese patent medicines were divided into 4 categories， namely eliminating accumulation， purging fire， promoting Qi， and moistening bowels， involving 125 Chinese medicines. The overall attention of constipation research is on the rise. Marenwan （granules or soft capsules） gained the highest attention， with 42 studies， followed by Qirong Runchang oral liquid， with 21 studies， and Biantong tablets （capsules）， with 19 studies. There are 10 studies on Congrong Tongbian oral liquid. Seventeen Chinese patent medicines had no corresponding clinical research. There were 8 study design types， and all drugs were mainly randomized controlled trials except Danggui Longhui pill. Among the intervention types， the comparison between Chinese patent medicines and western medicines was the most. The highest outcome indicators were efficacy， safety evaluation， and main symptoms or scores， and there was a lack of a unified core outcome indicator set. There were few studies on adverse reactions and the economy. Only 11.86% of the studies were funded. Clinically， Chinese patent medicines are widely used in the treatment of constipation， and the amount of related research shows an increasing trend. However， some Chinese patent medicines lack corresponding clinical evidence， and the published research has problems such as unrigorous design， ununified criteria for efficacy evaluation， lack of comprehensive evidence studies， and insufficient funds. It is hoped that more investment will be made in this field in the future， and more attention will be paid to drugs with relatively blank research and constipation syndromes with few treatments. Comprehensive evidence studies such as systematic reviews should be carried out actively. And the study design should be standardized to provide reliable evidence for the treatment of constipation with Chinese patent medicines.