Review of oriental herbal medicines found to be effective against neurological disorders in children

A study published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine examined the effectiveness of oriental herbal medicine in treating neurological disorders in children. The study was carried out by researchers from Kyung Hee University in South Korea.

• Oriental herbal medicine has been widely used in pediatric neurological disorders and has gained attention as a safe and effective treatment.
• The researchers gathered 16 systematic reviews comprising 169 randomized trials with 19,542 participants.
• These systematic reviews investigated the efficacy of oriental herbal medicines for pediatric neurological disorders.
• In epilepsy, data revealed that oriental herbal medicine, when used as an adjunct therapy to antiepileptic drugs, showed greater clinical symptom improvements than did antiepileptic drugs alone.
• Children with cerebral palsy that received oriental herbal medicine scored significantly higher in the Activities of Daily Living scale.
• For tic disorder and enuresis, results were inconsistent.
• Results for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder were unclear.
• Adverse events were reported in 11 systematic reviews, but no fatal adverse reaction was noted.
• The researchers suggested that more high-quality evidence is needed to make clinical recommendations on oriental herbal medicine use.

Taken together, the results indicated that oriental herbal medicine is promising for some pediatric neurological disorders such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

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Journal Reference:

Lee B, Kwon CY, Chang GT. ORIENTAL HERBAL MEDICINE FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS IN CHILDREN: AN OVERVIEW OF SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. 5 December 2018; 46(8): 1701-1726. DOI: 10.1142/s0192415x18500866