Objective : The purpose of this study was to analyze the trend of clinical research on ‘mild and sub-clinical depressions’ in China.
Method : The journal search was performed using China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI). Our inclusion criteria were as follows: TCM clinical trials for mild, sub-clinical, early stage of depression. Exclusion criteria were the following: non-TCM clinical trials, disease-associated depression related clinical trials.
Results : We included 16 papers in this study.
1. In this study, we realized there have been several mild and sub-clinical depressions related clinical trials conducted in the field of TCM.
2. The result of 10 Journals used the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for diagnosis and assessment criteria of mild and sub-clinical depressions.
3. The selected journals categorized by various interventions, such as, herbal medicine(7), acupuncture(4), miscellaneous(5).
4. Also, 7 Journals showed the significant improvements in patients with mild and sub-clinical depressions by TCM interventions, and 5 studies of TCM patent prescription reported that herbal medicine therapy has less side effect than the western medicine.
Conclusion : Through this study, we found out that several researchers in China performed clinical trials