ArticleComplementary therapies in medicine2007
Traditional Chinese medicine--what are we investigating? The case of menopause.
Article in Complementary therapies in medicine, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chinese herbal medicine for menopausal symptoms.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Liuwei Dihuang Pill for Menopausal Syndrome: Protocol for a Prospective, Observational, Multicenter Cohort Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Observational
- Stigma experiences among Chinese middle-aged women with pelvic floor disorders: a qualitative study.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Identification of Steroidogenic Components Derived FromFrontiers in pharmacology · 2018Article
- Identifying Chinese Herbal Medicine Network for Endometriosis: Implications from a Population-Based Database in Taiwan.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017Article
- Identifying Chinese herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome: implications from a nationwide database.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2014Article
- Designing clinical studies that take into account traditional East Asian medicine's systems and methods - with focus on pattern identification.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2014Article
- Differential activation patterns of FMRI in sleep-deprived brain: restoring effects of acupuncture.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2014Article
- The influence of culture on the oral health-related beliefs and behaviours of elderly chinese immigrants: a meta-synthesis of the literature.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2013Review
- Construction of a traditional Chinese medicine syndrome-specific outcome measure: the Kidney Deficiency Syndrome Questionnaire (KDSQ).BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2012Article
- Efficacy and side effects of chinese herbal medicine for menopausal symptoms: a critical review.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2012Article
- Yin and yang of body composition assessment.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2011Article
- Traditional chinese medicine improves activities of daily living in Parkinson's disease.Parkinson's disease · 2011Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
CAM researchers commonly treat traditional medicines as unchanging systems. This article questions the validity of this approach by examining the treatment of menopausal syndrome by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Such treatment strategies were invented in 1964 and betray a strong influence of biomedical thinking. While they determine TCM treatment of menopausal syndrome in the West, physicians in China and Japan use many other treatment strategies from within the wider Chinese medical tradition in clinical practice. Cultural variability in the manifestation of menopausal syndrome furthermore questions the usefulness of simply importing treatment strategies from China to the West. This leads me to conclude that Chinese medicine as such can never be evaluated by means of clinical research. What we can do is use Chinese medicine as a resource for thinking about illness, and for formulating clinical interventions that may then be assessed using methods of evidence based research.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.