SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1609934
This article is part of the Research TopicTraditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine – Advances in Traditional Medicine and Knowledge for Sustainable Global DevelopmentView all articles
Pediatric massage in conjunction with other traditional Chinese medicine therapies for tic disorder in children: Systematic review and network meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
Jiayue Liu*
Hanyu Zhang
Tianyuan YuJinping Chen
Yingqi Zhang
Jiawei SunYue XuRentuya NaJiawang YanHongzheng Zhang
Mengqian Lu- School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
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Pediatric massage (PM) is a recognized alternative medicine therapy widely used in treating tic disorder (TD) in children, often combined with other traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapies. This systematic review and network meta-analysis assessed the efficacy and safety of PM and its combination with seven other TCM therapies, providing an evidence-based foundation for selecting treatment regimens for TD in children. The protocol for this study was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), number CRD42024553846. The results indicate that PM and its combination with other TCM therapies are effective and safe for TD in children. More specifically, PM plus Chinese herbal medicine and PM plus manual acupuncture performed pretty well in improving efficiency and decreasing the YGTSS score of TD in children. In a word, this study provides preliminary evidence to inform treatment decisions for clinicians and researchers involved in pediatric TD.
Keywords: tic disorder, Pediatric massage, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Systematic review, Network meta-analysis
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhang, Yu, Chen, Zhang, Sun, Xu, Na, Yan, Zhang and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiayue Liu, School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.