Natural Substances and Botanicals as Modulators in Major Depressive Disease: Focus on BDNF - A Review

This review discusses multiple aspects of Major Depressive Disease (MDD) and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in terms of epigenetics, natural substances and translational medicine as treatment options for MDD. Diagnosis is still based upon psychiatrist’s education and experience and unfortunately there is still no test marker to diagnose patient’s mental health status. BDNF has a vital and complex role in diagnosing psychiatric conditions such as MDD. Conventional drugs and standard medical approachment to MDD come up short in increasing BDNF levels so the translational medicine might be a candidate to fortify the treatment and BDNF to be a reliable candidate for diagnosis and prognosis of MDD and other psychiatric conditions. It will be contextualized the exogenous components as capable as increasing the BDNF levels in MDD patients which is found usually low. Natural substance’s application as a tool of translational medicine will be screened as long as the limited data permits for the very reason that the translational medicine helps increase BDNF levels without causing side and adverse effects caused by standard medications. The need to revisit of natural compound’s neglected importance and their application in MDD will be articulated.