Vitamin B Treatment for Herpes Zoster

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SBU Enquiry Service

Responds to queries received from Swedish healthcare and social service providers, or governmental organisations. Queries have a limited scope and the process is designed to enable a more rapid response, typically within two to three months. Reports are based on systematic reviews, that are identified through structured searches and critically appraised for risk of bias.

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Published: Report no: ut202611 Registration no: SBU 2026/440

Question

What systematic reviews have been published regarding vitamin B treatment for herpes zoster symptoms?

PICO

  • Population: Adults with active herpes zoster infection or postherpetic neuralgia
  • Intervention: Vitamin B (oral administration or injection)
  • Comparison: Usual treatment, placebo
  • Outcome: Pain, quality of life

Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline, Scopus, Embase, and INAHTA database for HTA reports.

Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.

Risk of bias in relevant systematic reviews was assessed using an assessment tool based on AMSTAR.

Identified literature

Three relevant systematic reviews were identified [1-3]. However, the risk of bias was considered to be high; therefore, the results and conclusions are not reported.

References

  1. Julian T, Syeed R, Glascow N, Angelopoulou E, Zis P. B12 as a Treatment for Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2020;12(8). Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082221
  2. Lin CS, Lin YC, Lao HC, Chen CC. Interventional Treatments for Postherpetic Neuralgia: A Systematic Review. Pain Physician. 2019;22(3):209–28.
  3. Wang JY, Wu YH, Liu SJ, Lin YS, Lu PH. Vitamin B12 for herpetic neuralgia: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Complement Ther Med. 2018;41:277–82. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2018.10.014

Search strategies

Medline via OvidSP 1 September 26

Title: Herpes Zoster and vitamin B
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp = Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. exp Herpes Zoster/OR Neuralgia, Postherpetic/ 15 164
2. (”herpes zoster” OR zoster OR shingl* OR ”postherpetic neuralgia” OR neuralgia, postherpetic OR pain).ti,ab,kf,bt. 979 066
Intervention:
3. exp Vitamin B Complex/OR exp Coenzymes/ 250 217
4. (”B vitamin*” OR ”vitamin* B” OR B-complex OR coenzym* OR B1 OR thiamin* OR aneurin OR B2 OR riboflavin* OR lactoflavin OR B3 OR niacin OR ”nicotinic acid” OR B5 OR ”pantothenic acid” OR B6 OR pyridoxin* OR B7 OR biotin* OR B9 OR folat* OR ”folic acid” OR B12 OR cyanocobalamin OR cobalamin OR hydroxocobalamin).ti,ab,kf,bt. 335 568
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
5. (Systematic Review/or Meta-Analysis/or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or (((systematic or realist or integrative or mixed method* or umbrella) adj4 (review)) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/) 638 307
Combined sets:
6. 1 OR 2 981 405
7. 3 OR 4 475 136
8. 5 AND 6 AND 7 152
Final result
9.   152

Scopus via scopus.com 1 September 26

Title: Herpes Zoster and vitamin B
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. TITLE-ABS-KEY(”herpes zoster” OR zoster OR shingl* OR ”postherpetic neuralgia” OR postherpetic) 58 913
Intervention:
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY (”B vitamin*” OR ”vitamin* B” OR B-complex OR coenzym* OR B1 OR thiamin* OR aneurin OR B2 OR riboflavin* OR lactoflavin OR B3 OR niacin OR ”nicotinic acid” OR B5 OR ”pantothenic acid” OR B6 OR pyridoxin* OR B7 OR biotin* OR B9 OR folat* OR ”folic acid” OR B12 OR cyanocobalamin OR cobalamin OR hydroxocobalamin) 886 907
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
3. TITLE-ABS-KEY (((systematic OR realist OR integrative OR “mixed method*” or umbrella) W/3 review) OR "meta analy*" OR metaanaly*) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”)) 970 647
Combined sets:
4. 1 AND 2 AND 3 80
Final result
5.   80

Embase via Elsevier 1 September 26

Title: Herpes Zoster and vitamin B
/de = Term from the EMTREE controlled vocabulary; /exp = Term from the EMTREE controlled vocabulary, including all narrower terms in the hierarchy; ti = Title; ab = Abstract; kw = Author keywords; it = Publication type; NEAR/n = Near. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other; * = Truncation; ‘ ‘ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
Population:
1. ‘herpes zoster’/exp OR 'postherpetic neuralgia’/exp 44 135
2. ‘herpes zoster’:ti,ab,kw OR zoster:ti,ab,kw OR shingl*: ti,ab,kw OR ’postherpetic neuralgia’:ti,ab,kw OR postherpetic:ti,ab,kw 39 277
Intervention:
3. 'vitamin b group'/exp OR ‘coenzyme’/exp 327 405
4. 'b vitamin*':ti,ab,kw OR 'vitamin* b':ti,ab,kw OR 'b complex':ti,ab,kw OR coenzym*:ti,ab,kw OR ’enzyme, co’:ti,ab,kw OR b1:ti,ab,kw OR thiamin*:ti,ab,kw OR aneurin:ti,ab,kw OR b2:ti,ab,kw OR riboflavin*:ti,ab,kw OR lactoflavin:ti,ab,kw OR b3:ti,ab,kw OR niacin:ti,ab,kw OR 'nicotinic acid':ti,ab,kw OR b5:ti,ab,kw OR 'pantothenic acid':ti,ab,kw OR b6:ti,ab,kw OR pyridoxin*:ti,ab,kw OR b7:ti,ab,kw OR biotin*:ti,ab,kw OR b9:ti,ab,kw OR folat*:ti,ab,kw OR 'folic acid':ti,ab,kw OR b12:ti,ab,kw OR cyanocobalamin:ti,ab,kw OR cobalamin:ti,ab,kw OR hydroxocobalamin:ti,ab,kw 413 473
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
5. ('systematic review'/de OR 'meta analysis'/de OR [cochrane review]/lim OR (((systematic NEAR/4 review) OR 'meta analys*' OR metaanalys*):ti,ab) NOT ('case report'/de OR 'editorial'/it OR 'letter'/it OR 'note'/it)) 925 180
Combined sets:
6. 1 OR 2 56 436
7. 3 OR 4 583 632
8. 5 AND 6 AND 7 55
Final result
9.   55
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