Effects Of Shu Gan Jie Yu Yin (SGJYY) On Behavior And The Levels Of ACTH In Plasma And T₃, T₄, TSH And RT₃ In Serum Of Depression Rats

Depression which belongs to affective disorder, seriouslythreatens both physical and mental health of human. Nowadays,depression has become a common and frequent disease in mordernsociety. The morbidity of depression increased fast, because mentalstress has become much stronger than before. Pathogenesis of depression is not clearly known now.Treatment on depression still bases on the hypotheses and has avariety of defects. Today, the research is focused on exploring thepathogenesis of depression and finding the new drugs that areeffective and have fewer side effects. On the basis of the traditionaltheorise, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played more andmore important role in treating depression. The systematic researchwas carried out on studying TCM's theories of stasis combining withcontemporary theories, experimental and clinical results of TCM andWestern medicine. Those will be of great importance to developeclassical prescriptions and improve the effect of TCM on treatingdepression and understand the mechanism of treating depression byclassical prescriptions. SGJYY is the self-maded prescription by our department.Through many years clinicial observation, it has been proved that theprescription has great effect. The chronic unpredictable intensivestimulus and separated raise were used in the experiment to makerats stress. Rats were randomly divided into six groups: controlgroup, depression model group, low,middle and high dose SGJYYgroups and Fluoxetine group. We studied the antidepressant actionand mechanism of SGJYY by investigating the behaviour, ACTH inplasma, T3, T4, TSH and rT3 in serum concentrations of depressionmodel rats.The principal contents and conclusions in the study:1. To discuss the psychopathology of depression and thedepression model with the systematically analyzing:It is similar to the human's depression disease because theexperiment model of depression set up on the unpredictable intensivestimuli which are from lives. The chronic unpredictable intensivestimuli (such as icy swimming, hot environment, food off, water offand day and night reversal) and separated raise were used in theexperiment to make rats stress. The rats were responded to stimulusdisorderly and efficiently.The scores of horizontal movement, vertical movement andcleaning movement all decreased remarkedly. The reduction ofhorizontal movement represented the reduction of movement,thereduction of vertical movement represented being short of curiosityto the new environment and the reduction of cleaning movementrepresented the reduction of attention to itself. The reduction of 1%sucrose solution consumption showed the less sensitive to the reward.The depressive state, the reduction of movement and being short ofcuriosity in the CUMS model rats was extremely similar to theclinical symptoms of depression. At the same time, the depressivestate could go on for a long time. The CUMS rat model is an idealdepressive rat model.The experiment model of depression set up on the unpredictableintensive stimulation and separated raise. The model rats were in thedepressive state and extremely similar to the clinical symptoms ofdepression. The contents of ACTH, T4 and rT3 in depression ratsincreased and the contents of T3 in depression rats decreased. Theresults supported the hypothesis of functional disorder inhypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) and hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPTA) of depression.2. To discuss the mechanism of SGJYY treating depression:SGJYY is Chinese traditional medical prescription which basedon the prescription of Shugan powder and Xiaoyao powder. It mayrelieve the liver pen, safeguard stomach against damages and soothethe nerve and so on.2.1 Behavioral research on antidepressant effect of SGJYY:The chronic unpredictable intensive stimulus and separated raise wereused in the experiment to make rats stress. Fluoxetine was used as apositive control medicine. SGJYY produced a significant increase inhorizontal movement (P<0.01), vertical movement(P<0.05 or P<0.01) ,cleaning movement(P<0.01),the consumption of 1% sucrose solution(P<0.01)and body weight (P<0.01). The experiment proves that all thegroups of SGJYY have antidepressant-like effect and the big dosagegroup shows the outstanding effect. At the same time, there is noobvious difference between the SGJYY groups and the Fluoxetinegroup. The results show that SGJYY has antidepressant-like effect.2.2 Research on the level of ACTH in plasma of depression ratseffected by SGJYY: compared with model rats, the ACTHconcentration of SGJYY treated rats decreased. It shows that SGJYYcould adjust the functional disorder of HPAA. Perhaps it's themechanism of SGJYY treating depression.2.3 Research on the level of T3, T4, TSH and rT3 in serum ofdepression rats effected by SGJYY: SGJYY has the effect ofantidepression and its mechanism may be related to the adjustmentof HPTA functional disorder. The serum contents of T4 and rT3 in thelow,middle and high dose SGJYY groups were all lower than that inthe model group. The serum contents of T3 in the low,middle andhigh dose SGJYY groups were all higher than that in the modelgroup. The result shows that SGJYY could markedly decrease thelevel of T4, rT3 and increase the level of T3 in the depression rats. Sothe mechanism of SGJYY treating depression may be connectedwith adjusting the functional disorder of HPTA.The result of the experiment shows that SGJYY could improvethe behavioral items of the depression rats. It also decreased the levelof ACTH, T4, rT3 and increased the level of T3 in depression rats. Theresults show that the mechanism of SGJYY treating depression maybe connected with adjusting the functional disorder of HPAA andHPTA.It also provides theoretical basis in the clinical treatment ofdepression. But the investigation to the mechanism of SGJYYtreating depression needs to be researched continually in-depth.