title: Chinese herbal medicine qi ju di huang wan for the treatment of essential hypertension: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
abstract: Background. Chinese herbs are potentially effective for hypertension. Qi Ju Di Huang Wan (QJDHW) is a commonly used Chinese herbal medicine as a monotherapy or in combination with other antihypertensive agents for the treatment of essential hypertension (EH). However, there is no critically appraised evidence such as systematic reviews or meta-analyses on the effectiveness and safety of QJDHW for EH. Methods and Findings. CENTRAL, PubMed, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and online clinical trial registry websites were searched for published and unpublished randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of QJDHW for essential hypertension up to January 2013 with no language restrictions. A total of 10 randomized trials involving 1024 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that QJDHW combined with antihypertensive drugs was more effective in lowering blood pressure and improving TCM syndrome for the treatment of essential hypertension than antihypertensive drugs used alone. No trials reported severe adverse events related to QJDHW. Conclusions. Our review suggests that QJDHW combined with antihypertensive drugs might be an effective treatment for lowering blood pressure and improving symptoms in patients with essential hypertension. However, the finding should be interpreted with caution because of the poor methodological quality of included trials. There is an urgent need for well-designed, long-term studies to assess the effectiveness of QJDHW in the treatment of essential hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xingjiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Guoyan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yuqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhenpeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaochen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang