Meta-analysis of the effect of different exercise modalities in the prevention and treatment of perinatal depression.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of perinatal depression is increasing and has become a global public health problem to be addressed. OBJECTIVE: To explore the prevention and treatment effects of different exercise methods on perinatal depression. METHODS: A meta-analysis was conducted by searching databases for published "exercise interventions for perinatal depression "related randomized controlled trials, up to July 20, 2022. RESULTS: 48 randomized controlled trials were included, with a total of 5282 pregnant women. (1) Exercise prevention of prenatal depression has a low effective stress intervention effect, ranking from high to low as yoga, aerobic+resistance. (2) Exercise therapy for prenatal depression has a significant intervention effect, followed by gymnastics, pelvic floor muscle training, aerobic exercise, aerobic+resistance, and yoga. (3) Exercise prevention of postpartum depression has a low effective intervention effect, followed by yoga, aerobic exercise, aerobic+resistance, and gymnastics. (4) Exercise has a moderate equivalent stress intervention effect on treating postpartum depression, followed by aerobic exercise, water exercise, yoga, fertility dance, and stroller walking. LIMITATIONS: Due to the small number of included literature on single exercise modalities, and maternity is a special population, most of the trial procedures included in the text were not blinded, which has a certain risk of bias and affects the accuracy of the Meta-analysis results. CONCLUSIONS: The therapeutic effect of exercise in the prevention and treatment of perinatal depression is superior to the preventive effect, and the effect of prenatal prevention and treatment is better than that of postpartum, with a moderate effect.

Tonifying kidney therapy for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of tonifying kidney therapy (Bushen, TK) for stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TK use for treatment of stable COPD were searched in four databases including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database from inception to December 2017. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted the data, and assessed the risk of bias in the included studies. RevMan 5.3 software was used for the Meta-analysis. RESULTS: Eight RCTs involving 809 patients with stable COPD were included. Compared with the conventional Western Medicine (CWM) group, the TK group (TK combined with CWM) showed significant improvements in the effectiveness rates (RR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.53, P < 0.000 01) and 6-min walk distance in meters (MD 11.92, 95% CI 3.52 to 20.32, P = 0.005), this study also showed that the TK group can decrease The Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Score (MD -8.01, 95% CI －12.89 to －3.13, P = 0.001). The lung function [forced expiratory volume in one second% (FEV1%), FEV1/forced vital capacity] showed no difference between the TK and control groups. CONCLUSION: For patients with stable COPD, TK can improve the clinical effectiveness and exercise capacity but fail to improve the patient's symptoms. Because of the low methodological quality of the included trials, additional high-quality and large-scale RCTs are required.

Icariin attenuates social defeat-induced down-regulation of glucocorticoid receptor in mice.

Icariin is a major constituent of flavonoids isolated from the herb Epimedium. It displays antidepressant-like activity in mice behavioral despair models and chronic mild stress models. In this study, a chronic social defeat protocol is used as a mouse model for depression, and the social avoidance effects of icariin administration are investigated. The data indicate that social defeat significantly reduces mice social interaction time and that icariin administered at 25 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg for 28 consecutive days produce remarkable increases in social interaction time. Impaired glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function is related to depression and normalization of GR function is closely associated with the recovery from depression. In this study, GR binding affinity and protein expression were evaluated by radioactive ligand and western blot, respectively. Our results demonstrate that both GR binding affinity and protein expression in the social defeat model are remarkably decreased and that icariin administration attenuates social defeat-induced GR down-regulation. In the present study, our data also show that icariin administration significantly inhibits social defeat-induced increases of corticosterone and IL-6 levels. The potential mechanisms of icariin induced GR modulation, such as effects on HPA-axis function, proinflammatory signaling pathway and membrane steroid transporters, need further study.