The journal of alternative and complementary medicine : research on paradigm, practice, and policy
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J Altern Complement Med · May 2006
ReviewEffectiveness of the Chinese herbal formula TongXieYaoFang for irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common problem, but treatment is unsatisfactory. Although Chinese herbal medicines have been tried, there are limited data to support their usage. The authors set out to systematically review the effectiveness of the Chinese herbal medicine TongXieYaoFang (TXYF) and TXYF with different Chinese herbal additions (TXYF-A) in the management of IBS in order to make evidence-based recommendations. ⋯ There is evidence to indicate the potential usefulness of TXYF-A for IBS patients. The results were limited by the poor quality and heterogeneity of these studies. Further studies with carefully designed, randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trials will be needed to confirm the effectiveness of TXYF or TXYF-A for IBS.