Effect of Chaihu plus Longgu Muli decoction plus five-element music therapy in the treatment of cancer-related depression

Abstract

Background: Ninety percent of tumour patients have negative emotions during or after anti-tumour treatment, resulting in depression. Western medicine antidepressants have many adverse reactions. Patients often discontinue antidepressants due to intolerance.

Aim: This study aims to observe the clinical effect of Chaihu plus Longgu Muli decoction with five-element music therapy in treating cancer-related mild and moderate depression.

Methods: A total of 120 patients with depression in the Oncology Department of Tangshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hebei Province, from July 2017 to March 2019, were selected and randomly divided into the control and study groups (60 cases each) by the random number table method. The study group was treated with Chaihu plus Longgu Muli decoction with five-element music therapy for depression. The control group was treated with escitalopram tablets. After three courses of treatment, the degree of depression, clinical efficacy, quality of life, serum norepinephrine (NE) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels were observed.

Results: After treatment, the HAMD-24 (Hamilton Depression 24) scale scores of the study group (13.93 ± 6.32) were lower than the control group (19.04 ± 7.46), and the difference was statistically significant (x² = 4.048, p = 0.008). The total effective rate of the study group (93.33%) was higher than the control group (73.33%), and the difference was statistically significant (x² = 7.260, p = 0.000). After treatment, according to the QLQ-C30 (quality of life questionnaire) scale, the functional score of the study group was higher than the control group (p < 0.05), and the symptom score of the study group was lower than the control group (p < 0.05). After treatment, the serum NE and 5-HT levels in the study group were higher than the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05) (NE: 221.81 ± 31.14 vs 198.91 ± 29.97, t = 4.078, p = 0.000; 5-HT: 141.41 ± 20.35 vs 125.32 ± 14.58, t = 5.781, p = 0.000).

Conclusion: Chaihu plus Longgu Muli decoction with five-element music therapy can effectively alleviate patients' cancer-related depression and improve their quality of life, which is worthy of promotion.

Keywords: Cancer-related depression; Chaihu plus Longgu Muli decoction; Clinical effect; Five-element music therapy; Traditional Chinese medicine.