BACKGROUND: Idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that seriously hinders limb activities and affects patients' lives. We performed a meta-analysis aiming to systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an adjunct therapy for clinical PD patients. METHODS: An electronic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journals Database and Wanfang data to identify randomized trials evaluating TCM adjuvant therapy versus conventional treatment. The change from baseline of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score (UPDRS) was used to estimate the effectiveness of the therapies. RESULTS: Twenty-seven articles involving 2,314 patients from 1999 to 2013 were included. Potentially marked improvements were shown in UPDRS I (SMD 0.68, 95%CI 0.38 to 0.98), II (WMD 2.41, 95%CI 1.66 to 2.62), III (WMD 2.45, 95%CI 2.03 to 2.86), IV (WMD 0.32, 95%CI 0.15 to 049) and I to IV total scores (WMD 6.18, 95%CI 5.06 to 7.31) in patients with TCM plus dopamine replacement therapy (DRT) compared to DRT alone. Acupuncture add-on therapy was markedly beneficial for improving the UPDRS I to IV total score of PD patients (WMD 10.96, 95%CI 5.85 to 16.07). However, TCM monotherapy did not improve the score. The effectiveness seemed to be more obvious in PD patients with longer adjunct durations. TCM adjuvant therapy was generally safe and well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Although the data were limited by methodological flaws in many studies, the evidence indicates the potential superiority of TCM as an alternative therapeutic for PD treatment and justifies further high-quality studies.

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