Peng W, Sibbritt D W, Hickman L, Kong X, Yang L, Adams J
Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney , Sydney, NSW , Australia.
Climacteric. 2014 Dec;17(6):635-44. doi: 10.3109/13697137.2014.904850. Epub 2014 Jul 9.
To provide the first critical review of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) use amongst symptomatic menopausal women, drawing upon work examining the perspectives of both TCM users and TCM practitioners.
A search was conducted in three English-language databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL and AMED) and three Chinese-language databases (CNKI, VIP and CBM Disc) for 2002-2013 international peer-reviewed articles reporting empirical findings of TCM use in menopause.
A total of 25 journal articles reporting 22 studies were identified as meeting the review inclusion criteria. Chinese herbal medicine appears to be the most common therapy amongst symptomatic menopausal women, and vasomotor symptoms and emotional changes are the most frequent symptoms for which TCM is sought. However, evidence regarding the prevalence of TCM use and users' profile in menopause is limited. Existing studies are of varied methodological quality, often reporting low response rate, extensive recall bias and a lack of syndrome differentiation.
This review provides insights for practitioners and health policy-makers regarding TCM care to symptomatic menopausal women. More nationally representative studies are required to rigorously examine TCM use for the management of menopausal symptoms. Syndrome differentiation of menopausal women is an area which also warrants further attention.
通过研究中医使用者和中医从业者的观点，首次对有症状的更年期女性使用中医的情况进行批判性综述。
在三个英文数据库（MEDLINE、CINAHL和AMED）和三个中文数据库（CNKI、VIP和CBM Disc）中进行检索，查找2002年至2013年国际同行评审的文章，这些文章报告了中医在更年期使用情况的实证研究结果。
共有25篇期刊文章报告了22项研究，这些研究被确定符合综述纳入标准。中药似乎是有症状的更年期女性中最常用的疗法，血管舒缩症状和情绪变化是寻求中医治疗的最常见症状。然而，关于更年期中医使用的患病率和使用者特征的证据有限。现有研究的方法学质量参差不齐，经常报告低应答率、广泛的回忆偏倚和缺乏辨证。
本综述为从业者和卫生政策制定者提供了有关对有症状的更年期女性进行中医护理的见解。需要更多具有全国代表性的研究来严格检验中医用于管理更年期症状的情况。更年期女性的辨证也是一个值得进一步关注的领域。
