Systematic review investigates which herbal medicines are effective against pediatric neurological disorders

Researchers from Kyung Hee University in South Korea summarized and evaluated the results of multiple studies about the effects of oriental herbal medicine on pediatric neurological disorders. Their review was published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.

• Oriental herbal medicine is widely used to treat neurological disorders in children and has gained a lot of attention as a safe and effective treatment.
• For their review, the researchers obtained up-to-date research data from nine electronic databases. These included systematic reviews which assessed the efficacy of oriental herbal medicine in treating pediatric neurological disorders.
• The researchers used an AMSTAR instrument to assess the methodological quality of each review and the GRADE approach to evaluate the quality of evidence for the main results.
• The researchers analyzed a total of 16 systematic reviews comprised of 169 randomized controlled trials involving 19,542 participants for their study.
• They reported the following results for each type of pediatric neurological disorder:
  • Epilepsy — oriental herbal medicine as an adjunct or an alternative therapy improved clinical symptoms better than anti-epilepsy drugs.
  • Cerebral palsy — when oriental herbal medicine was added to rehabilitation, children had higher scores for the Activities of Daily Living scale.
  • Tic disorder — results were inconsistent.
  • ADHD — results were inconsistent.
  • Autism spectrum disorder — results were inconsistent.
• The researchers reported that the methodological quality of the reviews was medium to high while the overall quality of evidence ranged from “very low” to “moderate.”
• The reviews did not mention any fatal adverse reactions.

The researchers concluded that oriental herbal medicine is a promising alternative treatment for pediatric neurological disorders like epilepsy and cerebral palsy, but more evidence is needed before it can be recommended for use in clinical settings.

Journal Reference:

Lee B, Kwon CY, Chang GT. ORIENTAL HERBAL MEDICINE FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS IN CHILDREN: AN OVERVIEW OF SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 2018;46(08):1701–1726. DOI: 10.1142/s0192415x18500866