A Review of a Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula for Treating Insomnia with Depression: Wendan Decoction

Abstract

Background: The relationship between insomnia and depression is complex and two-way. Long-term insomnia may cause, maintain, and aggravate depression, and with the development of the disease, depression patients will also experience insomnia symptoms. Oral medication is currently the main treatment for insomnia with depression (ID). Drugs such as Estazolam have good anti-anxiety and insomnia effects, high safety, and relatively small side effects. They are widely used in the treatment of ID in clinics, but some patients still have adverse reactions or low efficacy when taking Estazolam and other drugs. In recent years, Chinese herbal medicine and TCM prescriptions for the treatment of mental illness have been more and more accepted and studied by international scholars. The efficacy of Wendan Decoction (WDD) has been tested by ancient China for nearly 1,400 years, and with the development of modern pharmacological research, it is widely used in the treatment of insomnia and depression. Purpose: Therefore, based on the understanding of ID in TCM, this article discusses the pharmacodynamic effect of WDD, and based on existing clinical and experimental studies, comprehensively analyzes the clinical observation, mechanism of action, and pharmacological effect of WDD in the treatment of ID, to provide more clinical experience and experimental theoretical support for WDD in the treatment of ID. Methods: Retrieve Chinese and English literature on the treatment of ID with WDD from databases such as Web of Science, etc. Conclusion: WDD has good therapeutic effects on ID.