Assessment of the Therapeutic Effect of Total Glucosides of Peony for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in children; some clinical trials have reported the effects of total glucosides of peony (TGP) in the treatment of JIA. However, no systematic review has yet been conducted. In this study, we assessed the efficacy and safety in patients with JIA enrolled in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TGP. We extracted data for studies searched from 8 electronic databases that were searched and also evaluated the methodological quality of the included studies. We assessed the following outcome measures: overall response rate, pain, tender joint count (TJC), swollen joint count (SJC), duration of morning stiffness (DMS), grip strength (GS), rheumatoid factor (RF), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and adverse effects (AEs) in short term (4–8 weeks), intermediate term (9–26 weeks), and long term (>26 weeks). The final analysis showed that TGP acted as a unique nonbiologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (nonbiologic DMARD), and its therapeutic effects were safe and efficacious for the treatment of JIA with few AEs. However, more high-quality RCTs are needed to confirm these therapeutic effects.