Brain Functional Differences in Drug-Naive Major Depression with Anxiety Patients of Different Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Patterns: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Application of Psychotherapy Based on Five-Element Theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine in Improving the Mental States of Patients with Post-Stroke Depression

BACKGROUND

This study aims to explore the clinical effect of psychotherapy based on five-element theory in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in improving the mental states of patients with post-stroke depression (PSD), to provide reference and guidance for clinical treatment.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted on 163 PSD cases treated in The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China from January 2022 to January 2023. The patients treated with conventional treatment were included in the control group (n = 84), and patients receiving psychotherapy based on five-element theory in TCM and conventional treatment were classified as the observation group (n = 79). The anxiety levels, depression levels, TCM syndrome scores and sleep quality were compared in both groups. The enumeration data were tested by χ2 test. Kolmogorov-Smirnov method tested whether the measurement data met normal distribution, and those did not meet normal distribution were tested by Mann-Whitney method. The difference was statistically significant at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

After 4-week and 8-week treatments, the observation group had significantly lower scores of Hamilton Anxiety Scale (z = -4.562, -6.765; p < 0.001), Hamilton Depression Scale (z = -7.588, -8.023; p < 0.001), TCM syndrome (z = -7.138, -10.946; p < 0.001), and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (z = -6.819, -8.240; p < 0.001) than the control group.

CONCLUSION

Psychotherapy based on five-element theory in TCM is beneficial to patients with PSD and can bring a certain clinical reference value.

Lateralized brain activities in subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment with differential Chinese medicine patterns: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Background

Subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment (svMCI) is one of the most treatable cognitive impairments, but could be hampered by the high clinical heterogeneities. Further classification by Chinese Medicine (CM) patterns has been proved to stratify its clinical heterogeneities. It remains largely unknown of the spontaneous brain activities regarding deficiency patterns (DPs) and excess patterns (EPs) of svMCI patients based on fMRI data.

Objective

We aim to provide neuroimaging evidence of altered resting-state brain activities associated with DPs and EPs in svMCI patients.

Methods

Thirty-seven svMCI patients (PAs) and 23 healthy controls (CNs) were consecutively enrolled. All patients were categorized into either the EP group (n = 16) and the DP group (n = 21) based on a quantitative CM scale. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) value was used to make comparisons between different subgroups.

Results

The DP group showed significant differences of fALFF values in the right middle frontal gyrus and the right cerebellum, while the EP group showed significant differences in the left orbitofrontal gyrus and the left cerebellum, when compared with the CN group. When compared with the EP group, the DP group had markedly increased fALFF values in the left superior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus and brainstem. The decreased fALFF values was shown in the right anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri. Among the extensive areas of frontotemporal lobe, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were significantly correlated with the reduced fALFF value of the right middle frontal gyrus and the left orbitofrontal gyrus.

Conclusion

Our results indicated that the DPs and EPs presented the lateralization pattern in the bilateral frontal gyrus, which will probably benefit the future investigation of the pathogenesis of svMCI patients.