CORRELATIONS AMONG ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY AND SERUM DRUG LEVEL IN MAJOR DEPRESSION: PREDICTION OF RESPONSIVENESS TO ANTIDEPRESSANT TREATMENT

Abstract

Objective: To examine the correlations among electroencephalography and serum drug level parameters to predict the responsiveness to antidepressant treatment in patients with major depression. Methods: Subjects received sertraline, 50 mg daily, for four weeks. On the first day before the initiation of treatment, 1 hour and 3 hour afterwards oral sertraline ingestion, on the 7th day and on the 4th week of treatment, all patients underwent assessments using electroencephalography. One hour and 3 hours after oral ingestion of 50 mg oral sertraline, serum drug level was measured. Serum drug level measurement was repeated on the 7th day and on the 4th week of the treatment. Depression was rated using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) while anxiety was rated using Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS) obtained before treatment (at baseline), on the 7th day and on the 4th week of the treatment. Results: A significant decrease in theta activity at the 1st hour electroencephalography after single dose of sertraline ingestion was examined. A significant alpha decrease after 7 days of sertraline treatment and beta activity decrease after 4 weeks of sertraline treatment were observed on electroencephalography measures. Conclusion: These findings support that the use of electroencephalography measures have the value of predicting treatment outcome in depression. If these results will be replicated in other studies, usage of electroencephalography and serum drug levels may become a useful biomarker for predicting treatment outcome in major depressive disorder. Key words: electroencephalography, major depressive disorder, predictors of treatment response, serum drug level