Traditional Chinese Medicine Use among Patients with Psoriasis in Taiwan: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used for patients with psoriasis. This study aimed to investigate TCM usage in patients with psoriasis. We analyzed a cohort of one million individuals representing the 23 million enrollees randomly selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. We identified 28,510 patients newly diagnosed with psoriasis between 2000 and 2010. Among them, 20,084 (70.4%) patients were TCM users. Patients who were female, younger, white-collar workers and lived in urbanized area tended to be TCM users. The median interval between the initial diagnosis of psoriasis to the first TCM consultation was 12 months. More than half (N= 11,609; 57.8%) of the TCM users received only Chinese herbal medicine. Win-qing-yin and Bai-xian-pi were the most commonly prescribed Chinese herbal formula and single herb, respectively. The core prescription pattern comprised Mu-dan-pi, Wen-qing-yin, Zi-cao, Bai-xian-pi, and Di-fu-zi. Patients preferred TCM than Western medicine consultations when they had metabolic syndrome, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, alopecia areata, Crohn's disease, cancer, depression, fatty liver, chronic airway obstruction, sleep disorder, and allergic rhinitis. In conclusion, TCM use is popular among patients with psoriasis in Taiwan. Future clinical trials to investigate its efficacy are warranted.
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Chinese Medicine, Taichung Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taichung, Taiwan.
Shu-Wen
SW
Weng
Department of Chinese Medicine, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Bor-Chyuan
BC
Chen
Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Yu-Chiao
YC
Wang
Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chun-Kai
CK
Liu
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Research Center for Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Mao-Feng
0000-0003-1465-0330
MF
Sun
Center for Traditional Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine and Graduate Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Ching-Mao
CM
Chang
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Jaung-Geng
0000-0002-3642-8047
JG
Lin
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Research Center for Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Hung-Rong
0000-0002-0131-1658
HR
Yen