| Depression is one of the diseases characterized by constant down in spirits, and it has been the globally usual mental disease. The epidemiological study shows that depression will be more serious causing disability than ischemic heart disease when it comes to 2002s, and, in America, the expense for depression has reached over 4 billion dollars per year.The project is based on the effects of acupuncture on depression, and theoretically combined with the ancient records about the spirit and therapies of mental diseases. The objective focuses on the effective mechanism of acupuncture in treating depression and the clinical value of acupuncture. The project includes five sections. The first discovers the ancient theories and therapeutic principles of depression in "Canon of internal Medicine" , and discuss the development of understanding the disease by many ancient'doctors. On the basis of the principles of treating mental diseases, "regulating spirit" , "regulating qi" and "regulating stomach function" , from "Canon of internal Medicine" , Shenmen is selected as the acupoint for the Classic Group.The second section reviews the psychological study of depression, physiopathology related to neurotransmitter, blood rheology and immunology, and genes.The third section involves the present situations of the research on depression clinically and experimentally, which indicates that Yintang and Baihui are the commonly used acupoints, and therefore they are chosen for the study in the Yinbai Group.The fourth section reviews the different kinds and evaluation of the animal models of depression, and it supplies the evidences and choices for the making of animal models in the project.Results and analysis: After the E-stim on Yinbai, 5-HT and 5-HIAA in hypothalamus of all groups are significantly different from those of the models (p<0. 05) . The metabolism of 5-HT(5-HT/5-HIAA) in hypothalamus is more active than the normals(p<0.05) and models, and there is no change of 5-HT and 5-HIAA in hippocampus, conclusion: (1) -the E-stim on Yinbai can regulate 5-HT and 5-HIAA in hypothalamus; (2) the E-stim on Yinbai can increase in hypothalamus the concentration of 5-HT, and reduce its catabolism to 5-HIAA. The increasing 5-HT contributes to the therapeuticimprovement of depression.The E-stim on Shenmen can also increase 5-HT in hypothalamus, significantly different from that of models. And there is a decreasing tendency of 5-HIAA and 5-HT/5-HIAA, but no significance. In addition, the decreasing level of 5-HT/5-HIAA isn' t so much as that in Yinbai Group. In hippocampus 5-HIAA and 5-HT/5-HIAA both decrease compared with those in models (p<0. 05) . In the cortex of anterior frontal lobes, DA is lower than that of models (p<0. 05). The results above indicate that (1) the E-stim on Shenmen can also activate the regulation of 5-HT. (2)although the effective target of the E-stim on Shenmen in the brain is not clear, the changes are likely caused by the decrease of 5-HT in hippocampus and the increase of 5-HT in hypothalamus. (3) The change of DA in hippocampus and cortex by the E-stim on Shenmen might contribute to the therapeutic effect on depression. Conclusion: it is hypothalamus that the E-stim on Yintang and Baihui act on, which explains the mechanism of the therapeutic effect on depression. The E-stim on Shenmen can' t contribute to the behavioral improvement of'model rats statistically, and the probable impact factor is the number of samples. The study on the mechanism shows it can reduce 5-HT in hippocampus, DA in anterior frontal lobes, but increase 5-HT in hypothalamus. |
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