Depression and Treatment with Effective Herbs

Abstract

Depression is a common psychiatric disease and one of the main causes of disability worldwide. In spite of certain developments in this field, chemical and synthetic drugs used for the treatment of depression disrupt the treatment process due to numerous side effects and high cost. Today, the goal of using a potential method for treating depression involves the use of medicinal and phytochemical plants, which have many therapeutic benefits. Studies have shown that medicinal plants affect the nervous system and exert antidepressant effects in various ways, including synaptic regulation of serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine, and inflammatory mediators. In this study, depression as well as the factors and mechanisms involved in its development are first addressed, and then medicinal plants effective in the treatment of depression along with their mechanisms of actions are reported.

Constipation: An ethno-botanical study of medicinal plants used for constipation in Shahrekord city, Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari province, Iran

“…It should be noted that medicinal plants have been used since ancient times and their safety a lot of them has been approved [44]. However, they also should be used with caution because they may have toxic effects, although they may even reduce the toxic effects of other compounds [45][46][47][48].…”

Antidepressant-Like Behavioral and Spatial Memory Effects in Peruvian Red Maca (Lepidium meyenii)-Treated Rats

“…Depression is a common mental disorder, which has dramatically increased affecting more that 264 million people worldwide while the lack of an effective treatment is a permanent challenge for psychopharmacological research today. 24,25 Nowadays, the search for novel pharmacotherapies against depressant activity from medicinal plants has significantly progressed as show by the large number of herbal medicines under current evaluation for their psychotherapeutic potential in a variety of animal models. 24,25 These studies provide useful information for the development of novel therapeutic agents from medicinal plants to be used in antidepressant activity.…”

Efficacy and Safety of Chaihu Jia Longgu Muli Decoction in the Treatment of Poststroke Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has many advantages, such as multitarget, multipathway, and strong safety, which plays an important role in the complementary and alternative therapies, and has accumulated rich experience in the practice of treating PSD [11]. According to TCM theory, the pathogenesis of PSD is mainly liver qi stagnation, accompanied by the damage to brain collaterals and imbalance of qi, blood, and Yin and Yang after stroke, and the pathological characteristic is intermingled deficiency and excess [12].…”