Searching for evidence in traditional chinese medicine research: A review and new opportunities

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is growing in popularity worldwide. In order for this complementary medicine system to gain official recognition in the health-care policies of Western countries, the evidence for the effectiveness of TCM interventions will need to be rigorously established. It is generally agreed that many research techniques used for evaluating western medicine (such as the randomized controlled trial study design) are not methodologically suited to appraise the efficacy and safety of TCM interventions. In this chapter, we aim to introduce and discuss issues relating to establishing scientific evidence for TCM.