Abstract
Background
Because researchers have reported that antidepressants increase the expression of
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the rat hippocampus, we investigated whether
serum BDNF levels may be used as a putative biological marker for major depressive
disorders (MDD).
Methods
We measured serum BDNF in the following three groups: antidepressant-naive patients
with MDD (n = 16), antidepressant-treated patients with MDD (n = 17), and normal control subjects (n = 50). Patients were evaluated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D).
Serum BDNF was assayed with the sandwich ELISA method.
Results
We found that serum BDNF was significantly lower in the antidepressant-naive group
(mean, 17.6 ng/mL; SD, 9.6) than in the treated (mean, 30.6 ng/mL; SD, 12.3; p = .001) or in the control group (mean, 27.7 ng/mL; SD, 11.4; p = .002). There was a significant negative correlation (r = −.350, z = −2.003, p = .045) between serum BDNF and HAM-D scores in all patients. In a preliminary examination,
reduced BDNF values of three drug-naive patients recovered to basal levels after antidepressant
treatment.
Conclusions
Our study suggests that low BDNF levels may play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology
of MDD and that antidepressants may increase BDNF in depressed patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 17,
2003
Received in revised form:
January 7,
2003
Received:
September 20,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
