The Effect of Salvia Officinalis on Hot Flashes in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

نویسندگان

1 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;

2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Heath, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;

3 Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;

4 Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran;

5 Department of Genaeral Practice, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

doi
10.30476/ijcbnm.2023.97639.2198
چکیده

Background: The experience of hot flashes during menopause has a negative effect on quality of life and can cause disturbance in the workplace and disrupt daily activities. Phytoestrogens in Salvia officinalis reduce menopause symptoms due to their anti-dopaminergic effects. This study was conducted to systematically review and summarize the results of clinical trials on the effect of Salvia officinalis on hot flashes in postmenopausal women.Methods: In this systematic review, databases including Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Scopus, SID, and Magiran were searched using keywords such as menopause, hot flashes, Salvia officinalis, and herbal medicines; all possible combinations of these words were used with the Boolean operators of “OR” and “AND”. To evaluate the quality of articles, we used Cochrane’s Risk of bias tools.Results: After eliminating the duplicates, a total of 148 articles were found. Following the exclusion of irrelevant articles, 4 studies with number of 310 people were examined. Among them, 3 out of 4 studies examined the effect of Salvia officinalis on the frequency of hot flashes, 3 out of 4 studies examined the severity of hot flashes, and only 1 out of 4 studies examined the effect of Salvia officinalis on the duration of hot flashes. All 4 reviewed studies indicated that the use of Salvia officinalis reduced the frequency and severity of hot flashes in postmenopausal women. Meta-analysis results showed that the effect of Salvia Officinalis on the frequency [ES=-1.12 (%95 CI:-2.37; 0.14), I2=71%] of hot flashes in postmenopausal women was significant compared to placebo, but severity [ES=-2.05 (%95 CI:-6.53; 2.43), I2=70%] was not significant.Conclusion: Salvia officinalis can be used to reduce the frequency of menopausal hot flashes. Expansive use of this plant can be suggested in case it is confirmed in further investigations.