Background Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease with a high incidence, imposing a substantial global disease burden. As a low-cost complementary and alternative therapy, traditional Chinese herbal formulations have been widely used in clinical practice in China for the treatment of psoriasis. However, systematic analyses of their application value based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome patterns or treatment outcomes remain relatively limited. Objective We aim to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of common traditional Chinese herbs in the treatment of patients with psoriasis. Methods We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, Web of Science, SciFinder, WanFang Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The literature meeting the predefined inclusion criteria was subjected to a secondary screening process. Meta-analysis was subsequently conducted using Review Manager software (version 5.4.1). Results A total of 47 papers involving 3,675 patients were included in the study. All TCM (herbal formula) groups showed positive effects in enhancing the treatment efficiency of different types of psoriasis. In particular, herbal medicines had a more considerable role in managing arthropathic psoriasis compared to other types of psoriasis. In terms of reducing Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores, TCM formula treatment showed marked benefits in pustular psoriasis. As for the improvement in TCM symptom indicators, patients with erythrodermic psoriasis (EP) showed better efficacy. For psoriasis accompanied by blood dryness, herbal medicines were more effective in reducing Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores. Conclusion The results indicate that TCM formulations included in this review are beneficial for reducing PASI scores, DLQI scores, and TCM symptom scores among patients with different types of psoriasis. The most commonly used herbal formula was Blood cooling and detoxification formula, followed by Taohong Siwu decoction and Blood nourishing and detoxifying formula. Nevertheless, more rigorously designed studies on herbal medicines are warranted to enhance the overall quality of research in this field going forward.
Zhou et al. (Fri,) studied this question.