DESIGN: A 2 (Culture; Malay, British) × 2 (Mood; depressed, control) cross-sectional design using a card sort task and self-report measures was used.
METHODS: Malay individuals with MDD or no history of MDD completed the life-structure card-sorting task, which provided a novel method for investigating organizational structure of the life narrative. These data were compared to previously collected data in which British individuals with MDD or without MDD had completed the same task within the same experimental protocol.
RESULTS: Pan-culturally those with MDD had greater negativity (i.e., used more negative attributes), negative redundancy (i.e., used the same negative attributes repeatedly across life chapters) and negative emodiversity (i.e., had greater variety and relative abundance of negative attributes), and reduced positive redundancy (i.e., used the same positive attributes repeatedly across chapters) in their structuring relative to controls. While the British MDD group had greater compartmentalization (i.e., the negative and positive attributes were clustered separately across different chapters) than British controls, the Malay MDD group had lower levels of compartmentalization than Malay controls.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest culture may shape aspects of the autobiographical life structure in MDD.
PRACTITIONER POINTS: The majority of the literature investigating depression pertains to individuals from European Western cultures, despite recognition that depression ranks as one of the most debilitating diseases worldwide. This raises questions as to whether current depression models and interventions can be applied universally or whether they are limited to European Western groups. The current study found that pan-culturally those with MDD had similar structuring of their life story relative to controls. However, there were some cultural differences that need to be considered (e.g., Malay individuals provided less detailed, less elaborate and less emotionally diverse life stories and while the British MDD group had greater compartmentalization than British controls, the Malay MDD group had lower levels of compartmentalization than Malay controls). Limitations of the study included group differences in gender and mood at the time of testing. Cultural differences in the number of attributes used may have influenced findings. Only the Malay group completed the individualism-collectivism measure.
Methods: Anti-cholinesterase, anti-oxidant, and total phenolic and flavonoid contents were established using standard procedures.
Results: The three polyherbal extracts exhibited significant concentration dependent acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity (P = 0.001). The highest AChE inhibition was observed with the Neocare Herbal Tea (NHT) with 99.7% (IC50 = 324 μg/mL); whereas the Herbalin Complex Tea (HCT) and Phytoblis Herbal Tea (PHT) exhibited 73.8% (IC50 = 0.2 μg/mL) and 60.6% (IC50 = 0.7 μg/mL) inhibition, respectively, relative to eserine at 100% inhibition (IC50 = 0.9 μg/mL) at 200 μg/mL. The order of percentage increase in inhibition of AChE was NHT > HCT > PHT; while the order of decrease in potency was HCT > PHT > NHT.Radical scavenging activities of HCT, NHT and PHT were 82.13% (IC50 = 0.08 μg/mL), 77.43% (IC50 = 0.01 μg/mL) and 76.28% (IC50 = 0.3 μg/mL), respectively, at 1 mg/mL concentrations. The reducing power revealed a dose-dependent effect, with NHT > PHT > HCT. The order of total phenolics content in the extracts were PHT > HCT > NHT, and for total flavonoids content: PHT > NHT > HCT.
Conclusion: The three polyherbal standardised products possess significant acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity and secondary metabolites that could collectively contribute to their memory-enhancing effects.