Yang JJ, Wang Q, Jiang W. Harmonizing the mind and body: The interrelationship between traditional Chinese medicine body constitution, mental health and sleep quality. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(3): 103033 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i3.103033]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wei Jiang, Associate Professor, MD, The Comprehensive Breast Care Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 157 West 5th Road, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China. jiangweixjtu@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Mar 19, 2025; 15(3): 103033 Published online Mar 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i3.103033
Harmonizing the mind and body: The interrelationship between traditional Chinese medicine body constitution, mental health and sleep quality
Juan-Juan Yang, Qian Wang, Wei Jiang
Juan-Juan Yang, Qian Wang, Department of Health Management, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China
Wei Jiang, The Comprehensive Breast Care Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Jiang W and Yang JJ conceived and designed the study and analyzed the clinical data; Yang JJ and Wang Q collected the clinical data; Yang J, Wang Q, and Jiang W wrote the paper; and all authors critically reviewed and provided final approval of the manuscript, and are responsible for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82103022; and the Science Foundation of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. RC(XM)202012.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xi’an Jiaotong University College of Medicine (No. 2022-892).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data generated during this study are included in this published article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei Jiang, Associate Professor, MD, The Comprehensive Breast Care Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 157 West 5th Road, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China. jiangweixjtu@163.com
Received: November 6, 2024 Revised: December 31, 2024 Accepted: January 20, 2025 Published online: March 19, 2025 Processing time: 112 Days and 13.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) body constitution is a key factor in determining and influencing the occurrence, development, and variation of diseases. As the mind interact with the body, TCM body constitution is useful in preventing and treating psychiatric disorders and insomnia.
AIM
To investigate the interrelationship between TCM body constitution, psychiatric disorders and sleep quality.
METHODS
A total of 2441 participants were enrolled in our study. TCM body constitution was measured using the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire, sleep quality was assessed using the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and psychopathological symptoms were evaluated using Symptom Checklist-90. Logistic regression was used to estimate the interrelationship between TCM body constitution, psychiatric disorders and sleep quality.
RESULTS
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score and the proportions of participants with Qi-deficiency constitution, Qi-stagnation constitution, and blood-stasis constitution were significantly higher in the psychiatric symptoms group. Additionally, psychiatric symptoms were considerably associated with sleep quality, Qi-deficiency constitution, and Qi-stagnation constitution, but were inversely associated with male sex. Obsessive–compulsive symptoms were considerably associated with sleep quality, Qi-deficiency constitution and Qi-stagnation constitution. Depression was considerably associated with sleep quality, hyperuricemia, and Qi-stagnation constitution. Anxiety was considerably associated with sleep quality, diabetes, and Qi-stagnation constitution. Finally, poor sleep quality was considerably associated with Qi-deficiency constitution, Qi-stagnation constitution, dampness-heat constitution, phlegm-dampness constitution, and blood-stasis constitution but was inversely associated with male sex and body mass index > 23.9.
CONCLUSION
TCM body constitutions are strongly associated with psychiatric symptoms and sleep quality. Further research is needed to verify whether TCM body constitution can be used to treat and prevent psychiatric conditions as well as enhance sleep quality.
Core Tip: This retrospective study investigated the correlations between traditional Chinese medicine body constitution, psychiatric disorders, and sleep quality. traditional Chinese medicine body constitution was associated with psychiatric symptoms and sleep quality. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score and the proportions of participants with a Qi-deficiency constitution, blood-stasis constitution, and Qi-stagnation constitution were significantly higher in the psychiatric symptoms group. Psychiatric symptoms were considerably associated with sleep quality, Qi-deficiency constitution, and Qi-stagnation constitution but inversely associated with male sex. Finally, poor sleep quality was considerably associated with Qi-deficiency constitution, phlegm-dampness constitution, dampness-heat constitution, blood-stasis constitution, and Qi-stagnation constitution but inversely associated with male sex and body mass index > 23.9.
