authors did not acknowledge. Without a standardized definition or
biomarkers it is very difficult to draw conclusions about the trials
or compare trials. Using the umbrella term CFS is problematic. As
well, RCTs and sufficiently powered trials are expensive and funding
in many areas of research is insufficient for RCTs.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Patients with Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome: a Systematic Review
Terje Alraek , Myeong SOO Lee , Tae-Young Choi , Huijuan Cao and Jianping Liu
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011,
11:87doi:10.1186/1472-6882-11-87
Published: 7 October 2011
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Throughout the world, patients with chronic diseases/illnesses use
complementary and alternative medicines (CAM). The use of CAM is also
substantial among patients with diseases/illnesses of unknown
aetiology. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also termed myalgic
encephalomyelitis (ME), is no exception. Hence, a systematic review of
randomised controlled trials of CAM treatments in patients with CFS/ME
was undertaken to summarise the existing evidence from RCTs of CAM
treatments in this patient population.
Methods
Seventeen data sources were searched up to 13th August 2011. All
randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of any type of CAM therapy used
for treating CFS were included, with the exception of acupuncture and
complex herbal medicines ; studies were included regardless of
blinding. Controlled clinical trials, uncontrolled observational
studies, and case studies were excluded.
Results
A total of 26 RCTs, which included 3,273 participants, met our
inclusion criteria. The CAM therapy from the RCTs included the
following: mind-body medicine, distant healing, massage, tuina and tai
chi, homeopathy, ginseng, and dietary supplementation. Studies of
qigong, massage and tuina were demonstrated to have positive effects,
whereas distant healing failed to do so. Compared with placebo,
homeopathy also had insufficient evidence of symptom improvement in
CFS. Seventeen studies tested supplements for CFS. Most of the
supplements failed to show beneficial effects for CFS, with the
exception of NADH and magnesium.
Conclusions
The results of our systematic review provide limited evidence for the
effectiveness of CAM therapy in relieving symptoms of CFS. However, we
are not able to draw firm conclusions concerning CAM therapy for CFS
due to the limited number of RCTs for each therapy, the small sample
size of each study and the high risk of bias in these trials. Further
rigorous RCTs that focus on promising CAM therapies are warranted.
Provisional PDF - http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/11/87/abstract
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