Effect of Shengyang Yiwei Decoction combined with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants on HAMD-17 score and somatic symptoms in patients with depression

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of Shengyang Yiwei Decoction (SYD) combined with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants on the total score and scores of factors of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17) and somatic symptoms in patients with depression. Methods: This was a retrospective study. One hundred and twenty patients with depression were treated in Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center between December 2020 and May 2022 and randomly divided into the experimental group and the control group, with 60 patients in each group. Patients in the control group were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants and those in the experimental group were treated with modified SYD in addition to SSRIs for eight weeks. Explored the efficacy and adverse drug reactions of the two treatment options. Results: After eight weeks of treatment, there was no statistically significant difference in the total efficacy between the two groups (p>0.05); the total score of HAMD-17 and scores of factors except body weight were decreased in the experimental group compared with those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p<0.05). The SSI score of the experimental group was decreased compared with that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: SYD combined with SSRI antidepressants in the treatment of depression can reduce the total score and the scores of factors of HAMD-17 without increasing the incidence of adverse drug reactions. This combination can be used as an integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment for depression. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.1.9835 How to cite this: Li L, Wan A, Zhao M, Yu L, Han Y, Mi K. Effect of Shengyang Yiwei Decoction combined with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants on HAMD-17 score and somatic symptoms in patients with depression. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(1):205-209. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.41.1.9835 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.