Advances in Alternative and Integrative Medicine in the Treatment of Depression: A Review of the Evidence

Abstract

Depression is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric disorder that affects 300 million people worldwide. Pharmacotherapy is one of the treatments. Due to delay in initiating treatment efficacy and the incomplete response to mono-drug therapy in onethird of patients, new approaches need to be considered. One of the ways to overcome this resistance to treatment and to enhance standard medical practice is to add complementary medicines. We aimed to document research progress from studies on integrative medicine for the treatment of depression. Review of PubMed and Scopus databases on the topic and a personal collection of the relevant publications are the sources for this study. Some of the nutraceuticals and complementary medicines in the treatment of depression will be reviewed. Supplements discussed in this review include S-adenosyl-methionine (SAMe), Crocus sativus (Saffron), carnosine, theanine, palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), tryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), gemfibrozil, curcumin (the main active ingredient in turmeric), Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort), Lavandula angustifolia (Lavender), and Cinnamomum tamala. Despite evidence in favor of the antidepressant effect of several supplements, their efficacy and tolerability should be evaluated and validated by further high-quality studies.

Contribuições de terapias complementares e outras estratégias para o tratamento de depressão: uma revisão integrativa

“…Diante dos resultados obtidos e apresentados na Tabela 1, ficou evidente que o uso de terapias complementares se tornou ao longo dos anos uma prática comum no tratamento da depressão. Entre as estratégias encontradas estavam: uso de probiótico (Haller et al, 2019;Minayo et al, 2021), de suplementos (Haller et al, 2019;Shamabadi & Akhondzadh, 2021) e de curcumina (Ng et al, 2017); e a realização de auriculoterapia (Jales et al, 2019;Corrêa et al, 2020), musicoterapia, mindfulness, terapia Research, Society and Development, v. 11, n. 10, e361111032804, 2022 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v11i10.32804 comunitária (Lemes et al, 2020), Yoga (Silva & Costa, 2021), Reiki (Medeiros et al, 2020;Santos et al, 2020); meditação (Kaushik et al, 2020), eletroacupuntura (Freire et al, 2020), acupuntura (Hernández et al, 2020), aromaterapia, biofeedback, hipnoses, homeopatia, terapia de luz, massagem terapêutica, dança, intervenção espiritual e religiosa, terapia baseada em movimentos chineses (Haller et al, 2019), pilates e treino aeróbico (Vancini et al, 2017).…”

“…É importante destacar que estas terapias complementares podem ser utilizadas por diferentes públicos adultos e idosos (Corrêa et al, 2020), pessoas com sobrepeso e obesidade (Vancini et al, 2017), indivíduos com outras doenças associadas a depressão (Hernández et al, 2020), usuários de drogas (Lemes et al, 2020), pessoas antes de processos operatórios (Santos et al, 2020), entre outros. E os benefícios advindos foram principalmente alivio da sintomatologia da depressão (Han et al, 2021;Minayo et al, 2021), efeito antidepressivo (Shamabadi & Akhondzadh, 2021;Silva & Costa, 2021), autoconsciência (Medeiros et al, 2020), neutralização dos efeitos adversos dos fármacos utilizados para o tratamento da depressão (Kaushik et al, 2020), contribuição para o bem estar (Santos et al, 2020), melhora de humor e da autoestima (Hernández et al, 2020) e impacto positivo na qualidade de vida (Vancini et al, 2017).…”

Acupuncture combined with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for the treatment of post-stroke depression: a systematic evaluation and meta-analysis based on a randomised controlled trial

“…This approach seeks to discover more effective and safer therapeutic strategies ( 47 , 48 ). In recent years, integrative medicine—an emergent medical system—has gained recognition and support within the community ( 49 ). By synergistically merging advanced theoretical knowledge with clinical practice and adapting it to consider social, psychological, and environmental factors, integrative medicine is positioned as the inevitable evolution of future medical practice, particularly from a holistic human health perspective.…”

Догляд За Пацієнтами З Афективними Розладами. Дані Доказової Медицини Та Міжнародні Рекомендації

“…Отримано дані щодо того, що куркумін виявляв вищу антидепресивну ефективність в осіб з атиповою депресією [17,18]. Атиповий перебіг діагностують приблизно у 40% дорослих із цією патологією.…”