Effectiveness of adjunctive traditional Chinese medicine in reducing psychiatric rehospitalization in patients with schizophrenia: A nationwide cohort study in Taiwan

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Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder marked by high relapse and rehospitalization rates. Although antipsychotic medications are effective, their adverse effects frequently compromise treatment adherence. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used as a complementary therapy in Taiwan, but real-world evidence regarding its long-term effectiveness remains limited. Methods: Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Generation Tracking Database (LGTD), a two-million representative cohort within Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) spanning 2000 to 2021. Patients aged 18-65 years with newly diagnosed schizophrenia were identified. Following the application of exclusion criteria and 1:1 propensity score matching, 4578 patients were selected. TCM users were defined as those who received outpatient Chinese herbal medicine for >28 days. Outcomes included 5-year rehospitalization risk, length of stay (LOS), and admission frequency. Results: < 0.001). They also had shorter average LOS and fewer cumulative psychiatric admissions over 5 years. Conclusions: Adjunctive TCM use was associated with better long-term outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. These findings support the potential value of incorporating TCM into standard psychiatric care. Further prospective studies are warranted to validate these results and elucidate the mechanisms contributing to these effects.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.