Background: Cancer-related depression (CRD) is the most common mood disorder in patients with malignant tumors, negatively influencing the patient's daily life. Traditional Chinese medicine, as an alternative CRD therapy, has shown good treatment performance in recently years. Soothing liver-qi stagnation, as a classic therapy for depression, is based on traditional Chinese medicine theory. However, there is no evidence-based medical confirmation for the soothing liver-qi stagnation method for CRD treatment.
Methods: We will systematically search relevant articles from their inception to July 1, 2019 in the following electronic databases: the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database, and the Wan-fang Database. The primary outcome is the total scores of the Hamilton rating scale for depression and, the efficacy rate of reducing Hamilton rating scale for depression scores. The secondary outcomes are adverse reactions and quality of life as assessed by standard instruments. Two researchers will independently perform study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment. If there is any disagreement, it will be settled through third-party negotiations. We will assess the risk of bias and data synthesis using Review Manager (the Cochrane Collaboration) software, Version 5.3.0.
Results: This work will evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of the soothing liver-qi stagnation method for CRD.
Conclusion: This study may provide evidence-based medical corroboration for clinical application of the soothing liver-qi stagnation method for CRD treatment.
Prospero registration number: CRD42019145678.