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Introduction: Chinese patent medicine (CPM) is an indispensable part of traditional Chinese medicine. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifests is an acute respiratory infectious disease. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects and safety of oral CPM for COVID-19.Methods: We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that tested oral CPM for the treatment of COVID-19 identified from publications in CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Web of Science, SinoMed, PubMed, Embase, BioRxiv, MedRxiv and arXiv before November 2nd, 2020. The risk of bias for each trial was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool 2.0. RevMan 5.4 software was used for data analyses. The certainty of the evidence was assessed using the online GRADEpro tool.Results: Seven RCTs including 1079 participants were identified. The overall bias was assessed as "-high risk of bias" for all included trials. Oral CPM investigated were: Lianhua Qingwen capsule/granules (LHQW), Jinhua Qinggan granules (JHQG), Huoxiang Zhengqi dripping pills (HXZQ), Toujie Quwen granules (TJQW) and Lianhua Qingke granules (LHQK). Compared with conventional western therapy alone for people with COVID-19: regarding the main outcomes, the results showed that oral CPM combined with conventional western therapy improved cure rate (RR = 1.20, 95 % CI 1.04-1.38, involving LHQW and TJQW), reduced aggravation rate (RR = 0.50, 95 % CI 0.29 - 0.85, involving LHQW, JHQG, LHQK and TJQW); with regard to additional outcomes, the results showed that add-on oral CPM shortened the duration of fever, cough and fatigue, improved the recovery rate of cough and fatigue, and increased the improvement and recovery rate of chest CT manifestations. There were some differences in therapeutic effects among various CPMs for the same COVID-19 outcome. The use of TJQW and LHQG appeared not to increase the risk of adverse events, but JHQG may cause mild diarrhea.Conclusion: Low-certainty or very low-certainty evidence demonstrated that oral CPM may have add-on potential therapeutic effects for patients with non-serious COVID-19. These findings need to be further confirmed by well-designed clinical trials with adequate sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) is a gastrointestinal disease with a high incidence and no effective drugs available. Compound Glutamine Entersoluble Capsules (CGEC) is a compound preparation integrating Sijunzi Decoction and L-Glutamine. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the clinical effects and safety of CGEC for IBS-D. PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane library, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang Databases were searched from inception to June 30, 2019. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the clinical effects and safety of CGEC for IBS-D were included. Global improvement of IBS-D symptoms was used as the primary outcome. The data were analyzed by RevMan5.3 software. Risk ratio (RR) calculations and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used for dichotomous outcomes, and mean difference (MD) with 95% CI were used for continuous outcomes. Twelve RCTs involving 1232 participants were included. Compared with western conventional medicine (WCM) alone (i.e. gastrointestinal spasmodic and probiotics), CGEC demonstrated no significant differences in global improvement of IBS-D symptoms (RR 1.09, 95% CI [0.97, 1.23]), reduction in stool frequency (MD 0.14, 95% CI [−0.18, 0.46]) and relief of abdominal pain (MD 0.12, 95% CI [−0.27, 0.52]). The combination of CGEC and WCM had advantages over WCM alone in terms of global improvement of IBS-D symptoms (RR 1.37, 95% CI [1.25, 1.49]). Regarding the recurrence rate, both the CGEC group and the combined drug group were lower than the WCM group. In terms of safety, there is currently no evidence to suggest that CGEC can cause adverse reactions/events in patients with IBS-D. Low or very low certainty evidence indicated that there was no difference between CGEC and WCM for the treatment of IBS-D. The combination of CGEC and WCM had a better therapeutic effect than WCM alone for the treatment of IBS-D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]