Clinical Observation On Effect Of Yueju Pill In Treating Qi-stagnation Constitution Depression Patients And Enhances BDNF Expression

Objective To evaluate the effect of Yueju Pill treatment in depression patients or with other physical disease with Qi-stagnation constitution and energy stagnant by testing the serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF).Methods In accordance with the principles of syndrome differentiation and treatment,the depression patients were assigned into two groups:the experimental group was treated with Yueju Pill as well as the traditional Chinese medicine symptomatic treatment and the control group was treated with the traditional Chinese medicine symptomatic treatment compared with the normal group without depression.The efficacy was assessed by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HAMD-24),Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology(QIDS-16)and Patient Health Questionnaire(PHQ-9)at day 7,14 and 28,respectively.The serum BDNF levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)in 10 depression patients following Yueju Pill treatment compared with the controls.Results Twenty patients met the inclusion criteria.The HAMD-24 scores of patients with Yueju Pill treatment were significantly decreased at day 14 and 28 when compared with the baseline level or the control group(P<0.05).The patient group with Yueju Pill treatment had lower serum BDNF levels before medication,and significantly higher levels after therapy as compared with the controls(P<0.05).However,the serum BDNF levels showed no significant difference after medication compared to the normal group(P>0.05).We used the ratio of serum BDNF level to the score of HDRS-24 to assess association of serum BDNF level with depression scale for a given patient.There was a significant correlation in this ratio between the baseline and the 7th day in the Yueju treated patients(P<0.05).Additionally,there was a significant correlation in this ratio between the baseline and the 28th day(P<0.05).Conclusion Yueju Pill may have antidepressant effects and increase serum BDNF concentration.Through the correlation between serum BDNF and HAMD-24,we can predict the use of Yueju pills in patients with depression in advance.