ABSTRACT
Depression is a mental or affective disorder， whose occurrence is closely related to the physical， psychological， and social environmental factors. Clinically， patients with depression often present with significant and long-lasting blue mood， impaired thinking and cognitive functions， reduced mobility， and even self-harm and suicide attempts. The pathogenesis of depression is complex and diverse， and there mainly exist the neurotransmitter hypothesis， immunodeficiency hypothesis， hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal （HPA） axis activation hypothesis， brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF） hypothesis， and intestinal flora hypothesis. In western medicine， it is mostly treated with antidepressant drugs， but the resulting side effects and repeated attack cannot be ignored. Traditional Chinese medicine（TCM） has obvious advantages in dealing with depression. The advocates of treating "Qi"， "phlegm"， "stasis"， and "five zang organs" have all been proved effective. Depression is characterized by a long course of disease and repeated attack， which coincides with the concept of "deficiency" in TCM. Tonifying deficiency is a method for treating depression based on TCM syndrome differentiation. Under the guidance of this principle， the formulated prescriptions will produce the desired effects. This article reviewed the related clinical and experimental studies on depression treatment via deficiency tonification in recent years， and summarized the corresponding prescriptions for benefiting Qi， replenishing blood， nourishing Yin， and tonifying yang， respectively， so as to enrich the TCM theory of depression and provide new ideas for its clinical treatment.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>Background</b>Memory complaint is common in the elderly. Recently, it was shown that self-report memory complaint was predictive of cognitive decline. This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of the source of memory complaints on the risk of cognitive impairment and cognitive decline in a community-based cohort.</p><p><b>Methods</b>Data on memory complaints and cognitive function were collected among 1840 Chinese participants (aged ≥55 years old) in an urban community at baseline interview and 5-year follow-up. Incident cognitive impairment was identified based on education-adjusted Mini-Mental State Examination score. Logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between the source of memory complaints and risk of cognitive impairment conversion and cognitive decline, after adjusting for covariates.</p><p><b>Results</b>A total of 1840 participants were included into this study including 1713 normal participants and 127 cognitive impairment participants in 2009. Among 1713 normal participants in 2009, 130 participants were converted to cognitive impairment after 5 years of follow-up. In 2014, 606 participants were identified as cognitive decline. Both self- and informant-reported memory complaints were associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment (odds ratio [OR] = 1.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-2.48) and cognitive decline (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.01-1.68). Furthermore, this association was more significant in males (OR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.04-4.24 for cognitive impairment and OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.20-2.99 for cognitive decline) and in higher education level (OR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.02-3.15 for cognitive impairment and OR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.02-1.91 for cognitive decline).</p><p><b>Conclusions</b>Both self- and informant-reported memory complaints were associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment conversion and cognitive decline, especially in persons with male gender and high educational background.</p>