Dataset Information

Acupuncture therapy on chronic fatigue syndrome based on radar plot: A protocol for an overview of systematic reviews.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating chronic disease of unknown etiology that is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) as a disorder of the brain. CFS affects 1% (17-24 million people) of the world's population and is a major and costly public health problem. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), acupuncture can achieve a certain effect in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome, but evidence-based medicine is controversial. This protocol aims to multi-evaluate the literature quality and evidence quality of the current systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses (MAs) of acupuncture treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome, and provide intuitive and reliable evidence synthesis and decision-making basis for clinical treatment.

Methods

Eight databases will be searched from their inception to 1 June, 2020: the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Database (WF), Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. Published systematic reviews that were reported in Chinese or English, and the included studies were randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) for acupuncture in people with CFS will be included. Reviews selection, data extraction and management, and assessment of the study quality will be completed independently by 2 or more reviewers. The quality of evidence, methodological quality, and reporting quality will be evaluated by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE), A Measurement Tool to Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2), Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), and Adobe Illustrator Creative Cloud (Adobe Illustrator CC) will be used to draw and optimize the radar plot.

Results

The article in this overview will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Conclusion

We hope to collect evidence from accessible and useful systematic reviews of acupuncture treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome, to provide visual and scientific decision-making methods for more clinical practice and medical research.

Systematic review registration

INPLASY 202060052.

SUBMITTER: Tang L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8036103 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: Research into acupuncture and moxibustion and their application for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has been growing, but the findings have been inconsistent. Objective: To evaluate the existing randomized clinical trials (RCTs), compare the efficacy of acupuncture, moxibustion and other traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments. Data sources: Three English-language databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library) and 4 Chinese-language biomedical databases (Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang) were searched for RCTs published from database inception through August 2021. Study selection: RCTs include acupuncture, moxibustion, traditional Chinese herbal medicine, western medicine and no control. Data extraction and synthesis: Data were screened and extracted independently using predesigned forms. The quality of RCTs was appraised with the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool. We conducted a random-effects network meta-analysis within a frequentist framework. We assessed the certainty of evidence contributing to network estimates of the main outcomes with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) framework. Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcomes were the overall response rate and FS-14 scale. Results: A total of 51 randomized controlled trials involving 3473 patients with CFS were included in this review. Forty one studies indicate low risk or unknown risk, and the GRADE scores of the combined results show low levels. Among the main indicators, traditional Chinese medicine therapies have excellent performance. However, the overall response rate is slightly different from the results obtained from the Fatigue Scale-14 total score. Moxibustion and traditional Chinese medicine (Odds ratios 48, 95% CrI 15–150) perform better in the total effective rate, while moxibustion plus acupuncture (MD 4.5, 95% CrI 3.0–5.9) is better in the FS-14 total score. Conclusions: The effect of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of CFS was significantly higher than that of other treatments. Traditional Chinese medicine should be used more widely in the treatment of CFS.