Discussion of Correlation Between Chronic Psychological Stress Induced Liver Depression and Spleen Deficiency Syndrome and Microbiota-gut-brain Axis and Study on Intervention Mechanism of Xiaoyaosan / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Psychological stress （pressure） has gradually become an important factor affecting human physical and mental health， and is one of the important factors in the progression of clinical chronic refractory diseases. Psychological stress response can be attributed to the category of emotional illness in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. In the theory of TCM， the liver controls dispersion and regulates mental activity. Relevant scholars believe that the liver is the core of psychological stress response in the TCM theory. When being stimulated by chronic or repeated psychological stress， the body can gradually change from the initial depression and anxiety-rela behaviors to the gastrointestinal dysfunctions， which is similar to the formation process of the syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency with liver-spleen disharmony. The syndrome of liver depression and spleen deficiency is also the common syndrome of TCM for psychological stress-related diseases. With the effect in soothing liver and invigorating spleen， Xiaoyaosan has been regarded as the classic formula for anti-stress. Modern studies have showed that gut microbiota not only get involved in the movement， structure and function of the digestive tract， but also affect the brain function and behavior of the host through the gut-brain axis. Therefore， the microbiota-gut-brain axis has become an important part of psychological stress to trigger the body's gastrointestinal symptoms and abnormal brain behaviors. Focusing on psychological stress， the authors explored the correlation between the syndrome of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency and the microbiota-gut-brain axis， and the intervention mechanism of Xiaoyaosan， so as to enrich the scientific connotation of the syndrome of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency.