The Role and Clinical Observation of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Relieving Senile Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role and clinical observation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in relieving senile insomnia and conduct a systematic evaluation and meta-analysis. METHODS: We searched Chinese literatures from some database, including the China Knowledge Network database, Chongqing CQVIP Chinese database, Wanfang database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature database. In addition, English literature retrieval database PubMed and the Cochrane Library were included in this meta-analysis. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) of cognitive behavioral therapy was found in the treatment of chronic insomnia. All articles were current up to December 1, 2021, and references in the literature were hand searched. RESULTS: About 16 studies were included, involving 1260 elderly patients with insomnia. Meta-analysis results showed that compared with the control group, the sleep latency of the experimental group MD = −8.02, 95% CI (10.95, 5.01), the number of awakenings of the experimental group MD = −0.41, 95% CI (0.68, 0.14), the total sleep time of the experimental group MD = 39.41, 95% CI (27.05, 51.71), the sleep efficiency of the experimental group MD = 7.82, 95% CI (1.87, 13.75) the Pittsburgh sleep quality index of the experimental group MD = 2.41, 95% CI (3.12, 1.46), the effective rate of the experimental group: OR = 3.12, 95% CI (1.76, 5.48), and the insomnia severity index of the experimental group MD = 1.05, 95% CI (2.04, 0.52). CONCLUSION: Our current study has indicated that TCM may play a central role in relieving senile insomnia and may be effective when treating insomnia. However, due to the low quality of trial methodology and publication bias, it cannot be fully confirmed. Further high-quality trials are needed to be investigated in the future.