ABSTRACT
At present， major depressive disorder （MDD） is highly prevalent with advanced neurological disorders as the main pathological manifestations. As the physiological function bearer of higher neural activity， gray matter has become the focus of MDD treatment. However， recent research has shown that white matter and gray matter are independent of each other in the central nervous system （CNS）， and their functions are integrated and linked. In addition to gray matter damage， white matter damage is also the core driving event of disease progression and determines the outcome of MDD. At the treatment level， the current drug treatment of MDD mainly focuses on gray matter repair， while ignoring the importance of white matter integrity for the treatment of the disease， which has become the weakness of the current treatment of MDD. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has good application potential in white matter repair. This paper elaborated on the following three aspects. ① The roles of white matter damage in the occurrence and development of MDD were summarized. ② The key link of white matter repair in MDD was elaborated with microglia microenvironment regulation as the entry point. ③ The application value of TCM in white matter repair in MDD was analyzed. This review aims to highlight the importance of white matter integrity in the treatment of MDD and is expected to expand the understanding dimension of the activity of related Chinese medicines in MDD from the perspective of white matter repair and analyze its potential application value.
ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo explore the distribution of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndromes of alopecia areata （AA）， and to provide reference for TCM clinical syndrome differentiation and classification of AA. MethodsAA patients who visited the specialized hairiness clinic of Beijing China-Japan Friendship Hospital were included. A questionnaire was developed including general information of the patients， history of hair loss （onset time， triggers and exacerbating factors， disease progression）， current symptoms （symptoms and signs）， medical history， personal history， family history， and hair microscopy examination results. The factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to determine the syndrome elements and to summarize the syndrome types. ResultsA total of 600 patients with AA were included， including 218 males （36.33%） and 382 females （63.67%）. Totally， 128 patients （21.33%） had a family history of hair loss， and 326 patients （54.33%） had a previous related underlying disease. The leading triggering and exacerbating factors of AA were tension and anxiety， accounting for 335 cases （55.83%） and 285 cases （47.50%）， respectively. The top 10 symptoms involved among patients were scalp oil， anxiety， irritability， dreaminess， fatigue， itching， tension， weakness and dandruff. The factor analysis showed that the factor rotation converged after 9 iterations， and finally obtained 12 common factors and 34 variables， with a cumulative contribution rate of 58.59%. In terms of disease location of AA， the main syndrome elements were liver， spleen and kidney， and the disease nature syndrome elements were mainly dampness-heat， qi stagnation， yin deficiency， qi deficiency， and blood deficiency. The clustering analysis of the 12 common factors showed that TCM syndromes could be summarized into four categories： internal retention of damp-heat， liver-kidney deficiency， qi and blood deficiency， and liver constraint and spleen deficiency. There were significant differences in the distribution of TCM syndromes in patients of different ages and genders （P＜0.001）. ConclusionThe main disease location of AA is in the liver， spleen， and kidney， with the liver being the key. The disease mechanism of AA is a deficiency-excess complex， initially manifested as excess and later becoming deficiency. The TCM syndromes mainly include four types which are internal retention of damp-heat， liver-kidney deficiency， qi and blood deficiency， and liver constraint and spleen deficiency.