Saffron in treating depression in women- a review

Abstract

Depression is a common psychological disorder affecting women at a greater proportion than men. The complex pathophysiology of depression makes it tougher to target the affected parts of the brain to exert antidepressant effect fully and the antidepressants which are commercially available usually comes with adverse effect exertions or longer response time. This report has detailed the information about different clinical trials that have used saffron to treat depression in women with no reporting of adverse reactions. The method of this study included the collection of relevant articles published between the year 2004 and 2024 by conducting a strategic search in PubMed and Google Scholar. After the total screening process, 4 clinical trial articles between the year 2008 and 2018 were selected relating tothe role of saffron on depression in women with specific diseases. The results depicted that saffron could effectively and safely treated depression in women including postpartum depression, depression associated with premenstrual syndrome and depression with post-menopausal hot flashes. Saffron has also demonstrated to function as efficaciously as fluoxetine in treating postpartum depression.