Herbal medicine for Hashimoto's thyroiditis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

Luo J, Zhou L, Sun A, Yang H, Zhang P, Liu K, Yu X, Lin Y, Huang Y, Han L · Journal of Ethnopharmacology · 2024 April

DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2023.117663

Objective

To investigate the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines for Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) in comparison to non-drug therapy.

Conclusions

Herbal medicines, such as Yiqi Huayu Recipe, Liqi Xiaoying decoction, and Shugan Sanjie therapy, were found to reduce thyroid antibody levels the most and improve clinical symptoms without affecting thyroid function in patients with HT.

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Insights

Herbal medicines may effectively treat Hashimoto's thyroiditis, particularly by reducing thyroid antibody levels and improving symptoms, without impairing thyroid function.

The methodology of this research incorporated a Bayesian network meta-analysis on Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients from various randomized controlled trials found in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and other databases, with data compiled up to October 1, 2022. Sixteen distinct trials were evaluated and 16 different herbal medicine formulas were compared. Outcomes of interest included changes in thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin antibody (TGAb), Free triiodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores and adverse events. Analysis outcomes indicated that all therapies bar one, called Tiaoqi-Qingjie Therapy, demonstrated some level of effectiveness in reducing TPOAb when compared against non-drug therapy. The top three therapies for reducing thyroid antibody levels were Yiqi Huayu Recipe, Liqi Xiaoying decoction, and Shugan Sanjie therapy. Furthermore, each herbal medicine also showcased noteworthy improvements on traditional Chinese medicine symptom scores and possibly improved Hashimoto thyroiditis treatment. No serious negative incidents were reported throughout these trials.