Siho-sogan-san (SHS), a traditional medicine, has shown promise in the safe and effective treatment of functional dyspepsia, a chronic upper gastrointestinal syndrome.
In this study, researchers sifted through eleven databases, including EMBASE, Medline, and the Cochrane Library, for randomized controlled trials on functional dyspepsia published before year-end 2022. Using two independent reviewers, studies were screened and selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and clinical data was subsequently compiled and analyzed using the Review Manager software. Outcome parameters assessed were total clinical effectiveness rate, time for symptom improvement, levels of motilin and corticotropin-releasing hormone, and adverse events. A Cochrane risk of bias tool was employed for quality assessment.
A total of 12 studies involving 867 participants were analyzed. Findings revealed that Siho-sogan-san (SHS) was more effective in increasing total clinical effectiveness rate when compared with Western medicine. Additionally, a combined approach of SHS and Western medicine reduced symptoms such as abdominal pain, belching, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal distension more rapidly and proved to excrete significantly more motilin. Corticotropin-releasing hormone levels were not noticeably different in both groups. Further, it was found that SHS was more effective when administered based on type of pattern identification.
