Depression is a common mental disorder. According to the data of the World Health Organization, the number of cases worldwide exceeds 300 million, and there is an increasing trend. The incidence of this disease is wide, which can be seen in patients of all ages, mostly women.
The main clinical manifestations are depression, emotional restlessness, lack of interest, pessimism, chest pain or pharyngeal foreign body obstruction. In severe cases, life is worse than death, with suicidal thoughts or attempts to end life. Some patients are accompanied by anxiety, mania or other mental diseases.
From the perspective of modern medicine, the pathogenesis of depression is complex and has not yet been clarified. There are classical neurotransmitter hypothesis (monoamine transmitter deficiency in brain) and neuroendocrine hypothesis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis dysfunction), and the pathogenesis is also closely related to genetic factors.
For emotional diseases, stagnation does not make sense.
From the perspective of TCM theory, depression is an emotional disease, which belongs to the category of depression syndrome. Depression also includes mental illness such as anxiety and neurasthenia. Depression, stagnation, impassability. All the factors leading to the syndrome of internal obstruction can be called pan-depression, such as qi, blood, fire, food, dampness and phlegm depression. Depression in a narrow sense refers to depression caused by emotional discomfort.
Zhu Danxi, a physician in the Yuan Dynasty, said: "Liver and qi are in harmony, and all diseases are not born, and all diseases are born when there is depression"; Xu Chunfu, a physician in the Ming Dynasty, said: "Depression begins with seven emotions, and then becomes stagnation, and depression becomes illness for a long time." It can be seen that many diseases are caused by qi stagnation, so in health preservation and treatment, the harmony of emotions and the smoothness of qi can not be ignored.
The main site of depression is the liver. The basic pathogenesis is stagnation of liver qi, and the common symptoms are depression, irritability, easy crying, frequent sighing, fullness in chest and hypochondrium, etc. Treatment pays attention to soothing the liver and relieving depression, regulating qi and relieving depression, and Chaihu recipe is generally the first choice. Other traditional Chinese medicines with the functions of soothing the liver and regulating qi include roses, bergamot, dried tangerine peel and turmeric. In fact, the development of depression is changeable and the course of disease is lingering, so we can't stick to one method in treatment. This disease may also involve heart, spleen and other visceral diseases.
Integrated ginseng, syndrome differentiation and treatment
From the perspective of five elements:
First, wood (liver) fire (heart), maternal diseases, qi and blood liver qi imbalance, will lead to mental malnutrition. The patient has anxiety, insomnia, dreaminess, forgetfulness and palpitation. Traditional Chinese medicines that help to nourish the heart and soothe the nerves include Semen Platycladi, Lotus Seed, Salvia Miltiorrhiza, Longan, Albizia Albizia and so on.
Second, wood (liver) is depressed by soil (spleen and stomach). When liver disease affects the function of spleen and stomach, patients may have digestive tract symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Traditional Chinese medicines that are good at invigorating spleen and regulating stomach include Atractylodes macrocephala, Dioscorea opposita, Codonopsis pilosula, Poria, Jujube and so on.
At present, the treatment methods adopted by Chinese medicine are endless, including Chinese medicine, body acupuncture, electroacupuncture, various micro-acupuncture therapies (scalp acupuncture, eye acupuncture, ear acupuncture and abdominal acupuncture) and other non-drug therapies (health massage, music therapy and psychotherapy). Studies have proved that the effect of acupuncture combined with medicine is better than that of single treatment.
In addition, the treatment should consider the patient's physical factors, the severity of the disease and the stage of the course of the disease, so as to reflect the characteristics of TCM that varies from person to person and treats according to syndrome differentiation.
If the disappointments in life are not properly adjusted, it is easy to feel frustrated. People should pay attention to it in time and receive professional consultation and treatment to avoid prolonging the course of the disease and increasing the psychological and physical burden. As doctors, we should follow the concept of "sometimes cure, often help and always comfort". When practicing medicine, with empathy, listening and responding appropriately will often get twice the result with half the effort.
* * * * * This article is an abstract for reference only.