An East Meets West Approach to the Understanding of Emotion Dysregulation in Depression: From Perspective to Scientific Evidence

Summary & key facts

This paper looks at depression from both Western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, called TCM. It reviews how each system explains what causes depression. Then it suggests possible brain-and-body pathways that might link TCM ideas about the liver, spleen, and heart to modern neuroscience. The paper is a theoretical review, not a test of treatments, and it says more scientific research is needed.

Key facts:

• The paper starts from the idea that depression is a disorder of emotion regulation and that it is common around the world.
• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is being considered more often as an alternative way to help people with depression, but it has not been fully accepted because scientific evidence has been limited.
• The authors summarize both Eastern and Western explanations for how depression develops, so readers can see the two views side by side.
• They propose plausible neurophysiological pathways — meaning possible links between brain/body processes and TCM ideas about the liver, spleen, and heart — but these links are theoretical, not proven.
• The paper's goal is to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western medicine so future research can test whether TCM concepts map onto measurable brain and body changes.
• Because this is a review paper and not an experiment, it does not provide proof that TCM treatments work for depression.

Abstract

Depression, an emotion regulation disorder, is a prevalent mental illness in the world. Meanwhile, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been increasingly regarded as a promising and effective alternative therapy approach for patients with depression. Despite many years of research on depression, the current understanding of the pathological mechanism of depression based on TCM theories is still in its infancy. Due to the lack of scientific evidence in the past, TCM is not fully recognized by researchers around the world. This review firstly summarizes the pathogenesis and etiology of depression in terms of both Eastern and Western medical systems. Secondly, it adopts an integrated Eastern and Western approach to propose some plausible neurophysiological pathways linking the liver, spleen, and heart functions explicated in TCM theory. The aim of this theoretical review is to bridge the knowledge gap between Eastern and Western medicine, which may better explain the pathology of depression.

Topics

Mental Health Research Topics Stress Responses and Cortisol Tryptophan and brain disorders

Categories

Biological Psychiatry Life Sciences Neuroscience

Tags

Alternative medicine Artificial intelligence Clinical psychology Computer science Depression (economics) Economics Epistemology Etiology Macroeconomics Mechanism (biology) Medicine Pathological Pathology Perspective (graphical) Philosophy Psychiatry Psychology Psychotherapist Traditional Chinese medicine Western medicine

Conditions & symptoms

Depression Sadness or low mood