SEARCHSYSTEMATIC_REVIEWsystematic review, geriatrics

systematic_review·systematic review, geriatrics, nutrition, neurology, clinical nutrition·PMC10433666

A systematic review of the safety and efficacy on cognitive function of herbal and nutritional medicines in older adults with and without subjective cognitive impairment

Systematic Reviews · 4 authors, 3 centres

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.

AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

“

TL;DR

This systematic review analyzed 21 randomized controlled trials to assess herbal and nutritional supplements for cognitive function in older adults. The review found that while most studies reported some cognitive improvements, the overall evidence quality is low due to a high risk of methodological bias.

Full summary

625 CHARS

This systematic review followed PRISMA guidelines and searched five databases to identify randomized controlled trials of herbal and nutritional medicines in older adults with and without subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). Data were extracted from 21 eligible studies. The most common interventions were Ginkgo biloba and Bacopa monnieri. While 14 of the 21 studies reported improvements in at least one cognitive domain, 14 studies were also judged to have a high overall risk of bias. Due to this high risk and heterogeneity in study populations, interventions, and cognitive measures, a meta-analysis was not feasible.

STUDY TYPE

systematic_review

SPECIALTY

systematic review

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10433666

A systematic review of the safety and efficacy on cognitive function of herbal and nutritional medicines in older adults with and without subjective cognitive impairment

Systematic Reviews

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Abstract Background Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) substantially increases dementia risk and is often conceptualised as the preclinical asymptomatic phase of the cognitive decline continuum. Due to the lack of pharmacological interventions available to treat SCI and reduce dementia risk, and the popularity of herbal and nutritional medicines, the primary aim of this review was to investigate the efficacy on cognitive function and safety of herbal and nutritional medicines (relative to a control) for older adults with and without SCI. The secondary aims were to describe the study characteristics and assess the methodological quality of included studies. Method Five databases (Cochrane, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and EMBASE) were searched from database inception with weekly alerts established until review finalisation on 18 September 2022. Articles were eligible if they included the following: study population of older adults with and without SCI, herbal and nutritional medicines as an intervention, evaluated cognitive outcomes and were randomised control trials. Results Data were extracted from 21/7666 eligible full-text articles, and the risk of methodological bias was assessed (with SCI = 9/21; without SCI = 12/21). Most studies (20/21) employed parallel, randomised, placebo-controlled designs and were 12 weeks in length. Herbal supplements were widely used (17/21), namely a form of Ginkgo biloba (8/21) or Bacopa monnieri (6/21). Measures of cognition varied across studies, with 14/21 reporting improvements in at least one domain of cognitive functioning over time, in the intervention group (compared to control). A total of 14/21 studies were deemed as having an overall high methodological risk of bias, 6/21 had some concerns, and only one study (using an SCI population) was assessed as having a low risk of methodological bias. Conclusions Overall, this review found that there is a low quality of evidence regarding the efficacy of cognitive function and safety of herbal and nutritional medicines for older adults with and without SCI, due to a high risk of bias across studies. Additionally, further work needs to be done in classifying and understanding SCI and selecting appropriate trial primary outcomes before future studies can more accurately determine the efficacy of interventions for this population. Keywords: Cognition, Complementary medicine, Herbal medicine, Nutrition, Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Systematic review

CITATION EXPORT

Adele E Cave, Dennis H Chang, Gerald W Münch et al.. A systematic review of the safety and efficacy on cognitive function of herbal and nutritional medicines in older adults with and without subjective cognitive impairment. Systematic Reviews. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02301-6

AUTHORS

4 · 3 CENTRES

Adele E Cave, Dennis H Chang, Gerald W Münch, Genevieve Z Steiner-Lim

1NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia
2School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia
3Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia