Abstract:Objective:To assess the clinical efficacy of Tongxinjieyufang in treating coronary heartdisease-related depression.Methods:70 coronary heart disease patients with comorbid depression were randomly assigned into two groups: 35 for traditional Chinese medicine group treated with Tongxijieyufang and 35 for control group treated with fluoxetine. Both groups were maintained with their regular coronary heart disease pharmacotherapies. The study course was 8 weeks and the patient symptoms, electrocardiographic changes, hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD), self-rating depression scale score (SDS) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) single symptom score were assessed before and after treatment.Results:Both groups demonstrated significant improvements (P<0.05) on measures of angina pectoris, HAMD and SDS scores, the efficacy of TCM symptom score individual aspects, the Tongxinjieyufang group had better improvements than fluoxetine group.Conclusions:Both treatments improved depressive symptoms, with Tongxinjieyufang group showing a bigger improvement. Tongxinjieyufang not only improved the symptoms of angina pectoris, but also improved depression scores, reduced the impact of depression on coronary heart disease, suggesting that traditional Chinese medicine has obvious advantage in the treatment of coronary heart disease-related depression.

Key words:coronary heart disease,associated with depression,yiqihuoxue stagnation law,fluoxetine