Changes in regional cerebral blood flow with Chaihu-Shugan-San in the treatment of major depression

Abstract

Background:Chaihu-Shugan-San (CHSGS) is a well-known Chinese traditional prescription used for depression.Objective:To observe the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes in patients with major depression and to investigate rCBF and clinical response to CHSGS.Materials and Methods:A total of 33 unmedicated patients with major depression and 12 healthy comparison subjects underwent single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. A total of 33 unmedicated patients with major depression all met the diagnostic criteria of stagnation of liver qi of traditional Chinese medicine and were divided into two groups: CHSGS group (n = 20) and fluoxetine group (n = 13). SPECT imaging was restudied in posttreatment.Results:SPECT detected abnormalities in all (100.0%) patients both in CHSGS group and fluoxetine group. All healthy subjects were normal results. The depressed patients showed rCBF decreased in the multiple regions. The semiquantitative values of bilateral frontal and left temporal lobes both in CHSGS group and fluoxetine group were lower than that in healthy group (P < 0.05). Reexamined SPECT after 8 weeks treatment with CHSGS showed the consistency between the increase in perfusion defects and the improvement of clinical cerebral symptoms. The semiquantitative values increased in posttreatment, when compared with pretreatment (P < 0.05).Conclusion:SPECT represents a sensitive tool to detect the major depressive disorder, which show the rCBF decreased. rCBF perfusion defects can be reversed and clinical symptoms can be improved by CHSGS treatment. CHSGS treatment is effective, well-tolerated, and safe for depression. By semiquantitative analysis, SPECT can objectively detect rCBF changes that is useful for guiding treatment.

Altered Default Mode Network and Salience Network Functional Connectivity in Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorders: An ICA‐Based Resting‐State fMRI Study

“…Moreover, patients with severe GAD based on HAMA scores were not enrolled in our study. Further investigations are needed to highlight the relationship between the network and the central executive network in GAD patients and to confirm our findings in a larger population [ 53 ].…”

Towards characterizing the regional cerebral perfusion in evaluating the severity of major depression disorder with SPECT/CT

“…Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) SPECT is a nuclear medicine imaging method in routine clinical practice, and is also one of the earliest functional neuroimaging studies in MDD [ 10 ]. According to previous research, there is almost complete agreement that blood flow in the frontal lobe is reduced in MDD patients [ 9 , 11 – 14 ], but the controversies still exist in the extent of the rCBF involvement [ 15 – 17 ]. It has been speculated that the various patterns of rCBF abnormalities in MDD patients may be related to the various clinical presentation of MDD [ 15 – 17 ].…”

Nine traditional Chinese herbal formulas for the treatment of depression: an ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacology review

“…CSS reverses the stress-induced disruption of ERK5 and p-ERK1/2 activation in the rat hippocampus 41 , 42 and increases the messenger RNA (mRNA)-expression ratio of ERα to ERβ in the rat hippocampus after CMS, but shows no significant change in estradiol levels or mRNA expression of ERα or GPR30. 43 CSS also inhibits the expression of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase via signal transduction involving stress-activated protein kinase in the hippocampus of rats after CMS.…”