Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis of Tuina Combination Therapies for Insomnia

A systematic review and network meta-analysis of 34 randomized controlled trials involving 2,663 subjects, conducted by Zihang Tong and last updated in May 2026. It compares the effectiveness and safety of 12 different Tuina-based combination therapies for treating insomnia, ranking interventions based on total effective rate and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score improvement.

Use Cases

• Compare the relative effectiveness of different Tuina combination therapies based on the network meta-analysis results.
• Identify the highest-ranking interventions for insomnia based on total effective rate and PSQI score improvement.
• Assess the reported safety profiles of Tuina-based interventions based on the adverse event rates mentioned in the review.
• Inform the design of future high-quality randomized controlled trials based on the identified evidence gaps.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on 34 randomized controlled trials.
• The review includes data from 2,663 total subjects.
• Compares 12 distinct Tuina-based combination interventions.
• Results are registered with PROSPERO (CRD420261344347).

Limitations

• The majority of evidence quality was assessed as low or very low, making findings exploratory.
• Safety conclusions are limited due to a sparse evidence network derived from only 5 RCTs assessing 3 interventions.
• The dataset is a single 44.6 KB DOCX document, which suggests limited raw data scope.

Provenance

Source

Zihang Tong via figshare.

Collection Method

Systematic search across PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, WanFang, and SinoMed databases, followed by network meta-analysis using Stata.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 04:44:14.