Treatment of Vasomotor Symptoms of Menopause with Black Cohosh, Multibotanicals, Soy, Hormone Therapy, or Placebo

Study answer

What this study found

Black cohosh and the multibotanical regimens did not provide clinically meaningful relief of vasomotor symptoms versus placebo, while hormone therapy clearly did. For vasomotor symptoms per day over all follow-up, the adjusted treatment effects were -0.54 for black cohosh, 0.43 for multibotanical, 0.09 for multibotanical plus soy counseling, and -4.06 for hormone therapy; hormone therapy was significant at P < 0.001. Symptom intensity and Wiklund vasomotor scores were likewise not meaningfully improved by the herbal arms, and the multibotanical plus soy counseling arm showed a higher…

Study & population

Randomized placebo-controlled trial in women aged 45 to 55 years in the menopausal transition or postmenopause who had two or more vasomotor symptoms per day.

Intervention

Black cohosh was given as Actaea racemosa or Cimicifuga racemosa 160 mg daily as a 70% ethanol extract standardized to 2.5% triterpene glycosides.

Key limitation

Generalizability is limited because participants were largely white, relatively well educated, and recruited from a single integrated health plan in Washington State.

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Original abstract