ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the kinds of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)syndromes of depression to establish the criteria of common TCM syndromes of depression. Methods According to the ways of clinical epidemiology, TCM Bianzheng and syndromes’ indexes were investigated in 1977 depression patients with unipolar and bipolar affective disorder in 8 investigation sites such as Hunan, Tianjin, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guanxi, Hujian and Guizhuo. Results There were 12 kinds of syndromes in depression. According to order of composition ratio, the first four syndroms respectively were Gan-Yu-Qi-Zhi, Gan-Yu-Pi-Xi, Gan-Yu-Tan-Zu, Xin-Pi-Liang-Xu, the ratios of which were 29 7%, 24 5%, 13 4% and 12 8% respectively.Conclusions The common TCM syndromes of depression are such as the followings: Gan-Yu-Qi-Zhi, Gan-Yu-Pi-Xi, Gan-Yu-Tan-Zu, Xin-Pi-Liang-Xu. There are some relationships between common TCM syndromes of depression and 4 sub-types of unipolar disorder.