A cohort study published on Jul. 9 investigated the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treating post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) syndrome, comparing it to conventional Western medical therapies. The study aimed to address the lack of specific Western medicine treatments for post-COVID-19 syndrome and to evaluate whether TCM could alleviate symptoms and improve clinical outcomes.
In the study, patients were divided into two groups based on their clinical treatment: a control group that received only conventional Western medicine, and a treatment group that received additional TCM therapy tailored by syndrome differentiation. Propensity score matching was used to reduce selection bias by equating groups based on observed covariates. Researchers collected clinical data including TCM symptom scores, results from the Short Form 36 Health Survey, assessments of clinical efficacy, and records of adverse events at Day 7. The primary outcome measured was the efficacy rate, defined as improvement at Day 7 compared with baseline.
A total of 434 patients participated in the cohort—306 in the control group and 128 in the treatment group. After performing a one-to-one match using propensity scores, researchers analyzed data from 94 matched pairs. Results showed that after seven days of intervention, the effective rate was higher in the treatment group than in the control group (30.8% vs. 17.2%; odds ratio = 2.17; confidence interval: 1.09–4.35; P = 0.003). Additionally, improvements in TCM syndrome scores were greater among those receiving TCM (median difference = 2; confidence interval: 0.50–3.50; P = 0.009). Subgroup analyses indicated generally favorable outcomes for patients treated with TCM across different subgroups, though not all differences reached statistical significance.
The authors said that standardized TCM syndrome differentiation-based treatment from established diagnostic protocols, when combined with conventional Western symptomatic management and lifestyle interventions, effectively relieved symptoms associated with post-COVID-19 syndrome among adults aged between eighteen and eighty years after seven days of intervention.
They concluded that changes in TCM symptom scores were identified as an independent influencing factor for clinical efficacy, and noted that sensitivity analysis confirmed stability of these findings.
