Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbal medicine for COVID-19 (multiple reviews)

Abstract

What is this? Traditional Chinese medicine and other forms of herbal medicine have been suggested as treatments for COVID-19 patients. Several potentially relevant systematic reviews have been done and the findings are summarised here. More details on these reviews, including citations and links to their full text, are available further down this page. What was found: At the time of these reviews, the included studies suggest that herbal and traditional Chinese medicine (alone or in combination with Western treatment) may improve symptoms, and other patient outcomes, for patients with COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses. However, the conclusions of these reviews should be interpreted with caution because of the generally low quality of their included studies. The Xiong review (searches done up to 21 June 2020) reported that the potential benefits applied to COVID-19 patients irrespective of disease severity. The other reviews were limited to patients with mild-moderate infection or did not comment on disease severity. The effects of herbal and traditional Chinese medicine on mortality for COVID-19 patients with COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses are uncertain.