Objective: To systemically evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) tonic class prescriptions in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method: Several foreign language electronic databases such as Pubmed

EMBASE

Cochrane Library and CBM

as well as some Chinese databases such as CNKI

VIP

Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform were searched from the date of database creating to December 31

2014

with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

motor neuron disease (MND)

traditional Chinese medicine

herbs

Chinese medicine

drugs

and Chinese herbal as the key words

to select the randomized control trials on treatment of ALS by Chinese medicine. Meta analysis was performed using Revman Manager 5.2 software. Result: The 7 RCTs involving 411 patients were selected

including 257 cases in treatment group and 154 cases in control group. Meta analysis results showed that the patients in treatment group were treated with TCM tonic class prescriptions (without limiting dose types)

better than the control group in terms of symptoms improvement[RR=1.42

95%CI (1.11

3.38)]. The reduction degree of Norris score in treatment group was less than the control group

so the tonic class prescriptions had better effect than western medicine in controlling ALS

making the disease progress more slowly[MD=2.1

95%CI(0.65

3.54)];tonic class prescriptions had significant better effect than western medicine in terms of improving impotent disease syndrome[MD=3.29

95%CI(1.57

5.01)];with statistically significant differences. In 3 of the included studies

drug safety was evaluated from the perspective of gastrointestinal symptoms and liver and kidney functions

and no severe adverse reactions were found. Conclusion: The current limited evidences show that TCM tonic class prescriptions could delay the development of ALS

with better effect than Riluzole

but can not significantly improve symptoms and completely cure ALS. Compared with the western medicine

the TCM is cheaper

and can be preserved easily

so it can reduce the financial burden for patients. However

the low quality of included literature has affected the reliability of this present study. Therefore

further clinical application studies with large size and high quality are still needed.