A Clinical Study On Rapid Antidepressant Effects Of Yueju Pill On Major Depressive Disorder

With the development of the society, the incidence of depression is increasing quickly. How to treat depression in a rapid and efficient way is a remarkable challenge. In previous studies, we found Yueju pill had a rapid antidepressant effect in animal studies. Numerous clinical reports also showed that Yueju pill had the ability to treat depression. However, none of these reports studied whether yueju pill had rapid antidepressant effects or not. Objective:To test whether Yueju pill could relieve depression symptoms in a rapid and efficient way, and to explore the relation between the antidepressant effect of Yueju pill and the level of plasma BDNF.Methods:Patients were randomly divided into three groups to perform the double-blinded trial. There were two experimental groups (treated with Yueju at two different doses plus fluoxetine) and one control group (treated with placebo plus fluoxetine). The experimental observation period was 10 days. After treatment for 7 days, patients stopped taking the herb medicine and placebo. The efficacy was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24) and Self Rating Depression Scale (SDS) at baseline and day 1,3,5,7 and 10 after treatment. We also analyzed seven factors of HAMD-24 and individual symptoms of the disease, and examined the plasma level of BDNF before the patients’taking the medicine and 1 and 7 day after treatment.Thirty-two patients met the inclusion criteria and completed the study (13 for experimental dose of Yueju,10 for conventional Yueju dose and 9 for control group). The HAMD-24 scores of patients taking experimental dose of Yueju significantly decreased at day 3,5 and 7, compared with baseline level or the control group, and remained effective after stopping Yueju medication (p<0.05). The scores of the subscale of retardation, in patients taking experimental dose of Yueju significantly decreased from day 3 to 10 (p<0.05). In the individual symptom of HAMD-24 test, there was significant decrease in Yueju experimental group (P<0.05) in the level of anxiety and there was a trend to decrease in depressed mood, compared to control group. In contrast, compared with baseline or control group,there was no significant difference between patients taking conventional dose of Yueju and control group. Neither did they differ from their baseline levels, respectively. Overall, the results from SDS were similar to HDRS-24. There was no significant difference in serum BDNF levels across the three groups.Conclusion:Yueju conferred a rapid antidepressant effect, mainly through improving the retardation factor, particularly by alleviating mental anxiety symptoms and depressed mood symptoms.