Variable assessment

ACE for patients’ cognitive assessment and GDS scale for patients’ depression assessment in three phases of preintervention and 1^st and 2^nd months of intervention were used and the results were recorded. It should be noted that in all the three sessions, the side effects of the herbal compound (sedge, saffron, and Astragalus honey), such as gastrointestinal symptoms, diarrhea, rash, drowsiness, skin discoloration, blood in the urine, and medicinal plants’ interferences with the chemical drugs, were evaluated, reported, and recorded.

ACE, revised version (ACE-R): This test is a concise test used to diagnose and classify all forms of dementia, particularly AD and frontal temporal dementia. This test consists of five subtests in which each of the subtests evaluates one part of cognitive function. The maximum score on the test score is 100, subscores are as follows: attention/orientation (18 points), memory (26 points), fluency (14 points), language (26 points), and visuospatial function (16 points).[18] Validity and reliability of the Farsi version of this scale were reported by Pouretemad in 2007, respectively, as 0.93 and 0.91.[19]

GDS is a self-reported test of thirty questions. The GDS is a standard self-report test which can be used in patients without severe intellectual disability and major psychiatric diseases.

Yesavage et al. (1982) have designed this scale for measurement of elderly depression. Test–retest reliability and internal consistency of this scale in different researches are reported, respectively, as from 0.85 to 0.90 and from 0.89 to 0.94. Cutting point to the scale is a score of 16.5 (sensitivity 0.88 and specificity 0.87); also, in Iran, Amini et al. in a study reported the alpha coefficient of the scale to be 0.75 and the reliability coefficient of split-half scale to be 0.77.[20]

Medications were prescribed by a psychiatrist who were unaware of patients’ allocation. Therefore, the patients received the boxes including medication and placebo which had specific codes. The patients were also unaware of their allocation groups. Measurements were done by a psychologist who was unaware of the patients’ groups. In addition, the person who analyzed the data was unaware of the patients’ group and data analysis was done using codes.