Potential therapeutic effect and methods of traditional Chinese medicine on COVID-19-induced depression: A review

COVID-19 (coronavirus) has spread all over the world with a high infection rate. Currently, there are no targeted therapeutic drugs for COVID-19 as well as for stress induced by COVID-19. The unpredictable events of COVID-19 can trigger feelings of fear, worry, or unease in people, leading to stress-related disorders such as depression and anxiety. It has been reported that individuals, including COVID-19 patients, medical staff, and ordinary people, are under both physical and psychological pressure, and many of them have developed depression or anxiety during this pandemic. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used in treating depression with relatively better safety and efficacy and may have an important role in treating stress-related disorders induced by COVID-19. In this review, we collected the common TCM treatment methods including Qigong, Acupuncture, Five Elements Musical Therapy, Five Elements Emotional Therapy, and Chinese herbal medicine from the databases of PubMed and the China National Knowledge Internet to illustrate the effect of TCM on depression. The better knowledge of TCM and implementation of TCM in COVID-19 clinics may help to effectively improve depression induced by COVID-19, may assist people to maintain a healthy physical and mental quality, and may alleviate the current shortage of medical resources.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; traditional Chinese medicine.

PMID: 34636498 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24758