Chinese herbal medicine for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Age Associated Memory Impairment.

This review assesses the effectiveness and safety of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Age Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI). Electronic searches of English and Chinese databases and hand searches of Chinese journal holdings were conducted. Randomised controlled trials comparing orally administered CHM with placebo, no intervention or other therapy were considered. Ginkgo biloba was excluded. Ten trials met inclusion criteria. Eight different CHM were investigated. Methodological quality was assessed using the Jadad scale and five studies scored three or above. Two studies compared CHM with placebo and eight with another intervention. This review found an overall benefit on some outcome measures for the eight CHMs involved in the 10 RCTs but methodological and data reporting issues were evident. Meta-analysis of three studies found the effects of the CHMs were at least equivalent to piracetam on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. No severe adverse events were reported.

Biogerontology. 2009 Apr;10(2):109-23. May BH, Yang AW, Zhang AL, Owens MD, Bennett L, Head R, Cobiac L, Li CG, Hugel H, Story DF, Xue CC. WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine, Division of Chinese Medicine, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.