Abstract
Though the role of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a marker for major depressive disorder (MDD) and antidepressant efficacy has been widely studied, the role of BDNF in distinct groups of patients remains unclear. We evaluated the diagnostic value of BDNF as a marker of disease severity measured by HAM-D scores and antidepressants efficacy among MDD patients. Fifty-one patients who met DSM-IV criteria for MDD and were prescribed antidepressants and 38 controls participated in this study. BDNF in serum was measured at baseline, 1st, 2nd and 8th treatment weeks. Depression severity was evaluated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). BDNF polymorphism rs6265 (val66met) was genotyped. We found a positive correlation between blood BDNF levels and severity of depression only among untreated women with severe MDD (HAM-D>24). Serum BDNF levels were lower in untreated MDD patients compared to control group. Antidepressants increased serum BDNF levels and reduced between-group differences after two weeks of treatment. No correlations were observed between BDNF polymorphism, depression severity, duration of illness, age and BDNF serum levels. Further supporting the role of BDNF in the pathology and treatment of MDD, we suggest that it should not be used as a universal biomarker for diagnosis of MDD in the general population. However, it has diagnostic value for the assessment of disease progression and treatment efficacy in individual patients.
Highlights
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic and debilitating syndrome [1,2], ranked as a global disease burden [3]
Some studies show that blood Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels in untreated MDD patients associate with MDD severity [29,30], while others do not support this claim [25,27,31] which leaves a gap for further investigation of the relationship between BDNF blood levels and the severity of MDD [25,32]
To achieve this goal we examined the association between BDNF serum levels, BDNF polymorphism, and severity of clinical symptoms in a cohort of MDD patients before and during different stages of treatment with antidepressants
Summary
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic and debilitating syndrome [1,2], ranked as a global disease burden [3]. BDNF Level Is Gender Specific in Severe Depression disorder characterized by a wide spectrum of symptoms that often complicates diagnosis and treatment decision making [4]. Numerous studies have attempted to identify biochemical and molecular markers that might help in the diagnosis of depression and in monitoring efficacy of antidepressant treatment [11,12,13]. Accumulating evidence has shown blood BDNF levels to be lower in MDD patients compared to control subjects [24,25,26,27,28]. In patients treated with different antidepressants increased peripheral blood BDNF levels were observed [35,36]. Because BDNF can pass the blood brain barrier [37], its blood levels can be used for the assessment of its levels in the brain
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