ReviewFrontiers in public health2023
The clinical application of Chinese herbal medication to depression: A narrative review.
Review in Frontiers in public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Experimental Study on Anxiolytic and Antidepressant Effects of Zhi-Chi-Jie-Yu Granules in CUMS Mice and Prediction of Underlying Molecular Mechanisms.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Article
- Peripheral Blood Transcriptomic Features Distinguishing Postpartum Depression from Major Depressive Disorder and Healthy Postpartum Controls.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Exploring the potential transdiagnostic treatment effects of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture on insomnia disorder comorbid with chronic pain: A scoping review.Integrative medicine research · 2025Review
- Novel intranasal delivery of sihosogansan demonstrates rapid antidepressant activity via GABAergic and BDNF/TrkB pathways: identification of potential bioactive quality markers.Chinese medicine · 2025Article
- Transdiagnostic Effects of a Chinese Herbal Formula DEP-2306 on Improving Sleep and Mood in Adults With Depressive Episode With Insufficient Symptoms: A Real-World Study.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2025Article
- Effect of Periplaneta americana Extract on Corneal Fibrosis and Epithelial Healing After Rabbit Lamellar Keratectomy.Translational vision science & technology · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of anxiety and depression in male sexual dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Sexual medicine · 2025Review
- Perimenopausal depression: Targeting inflammation and oxidative stress (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2025Review
- Therapeutic Targets and Molecular Mechanisms of Calycosin in the Treatment of Depression: Insights From Chronic Mild Stress Animal Models.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of anxiety and depression in male sexual dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Exploring the transformative impact of traditional Chinese medicine on depression: Insights from animal models.World journal of psychiatry · 2024Review
- Study on the Neuroprotective Effects of Eight Iridoid Components Using Cell Metabolomics.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Depression severely impairs psychosocial functioning and quality of life, which places a huge burden on patients and their families. However, the physiological mechanism of depression remains unknown. Treatment with existing antidepressant medications is effective in around 50% of patients according to various studies, but is associated with severe side effects including nausea and headaches. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been approved and widely used for depression as an alternative medicine in Chinese culture for decades. It has certain advantages and potential in the prevention and treatment of depression. In this review, we summarize the currently available evidence for the efficacy of CHM for the treatment of depression and physiological diseases comorbid with depression. We further discuss the possible mechanisms of action of CHM and the relationships to our current understanding of depression. The majority of current evidence has suggested that the combined treatment with CHM and mainstream antidepressants improves the response rate and reduces the side effects, while CHM alone could be more effective than placebo. However, the results should be carefully interpreted due to the shortcomings of existing clinical trials and a high risk of bias in meta-analyses. Our review provides a summary of the current applications and understanding of widely used CHMs for depression.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.