The prescriptions frequencies and patterns of Chinese herbal medicine for allergic rhinitis in Taiwan.
BACKGROUND
The evaluation of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) to allergic rhinitis (AR) by large-scale pharmaco-epidemiological study is not ease found, although CHM had been reported to have potential effect for AR in some clinical trials.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the frequency and pattern of CHM prescriptions on AR, we have the study by analysing the population-based CHM database in Taiwan.


METHODS
The way for this study was linked and processed the complete traditional Chinese medicine database for Taiwanese recorded in the year 2002. The diagnosis of AR was extracted with the only single ICD-9 Code of 477 to calculate the frequency and pattern of prescriptions. Association rule was applied to analyse co-prescription of CHM for patients with AR.


RESULTS
In the year 2002, among the 22 520 776 valid beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance, Taiwan, 914 612 subjects (3.8% of the total valid beneficiaries) have diagnosed AR. There were 35.6% of AR patients been treated by CHM. The peak age of AR patients treated by CHM was at the first decade (0-10). For the AR patients, the most common Chinese herbal formula prescription was Shin-yi-qing-fei-tang, or Angelica dahurica (Bai-zhi) for the single Chinese herb. While for the combination treatments the most common prescription was the two formulae, Xiao-qing-long-tang and Shin-yi-san.


CONCLUSIONS
Because of the high utilization rate of the CHM treatment for AR, a large-scale randomized trial warrants further research for its efficacy and safety.
Kung
Y Y
YY
Center for Traditional Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chen
Y C
YC
Hwang
S J
SJ
Chen
T J
TJ
Chen
F P
FP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012221:Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal