PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF CYTOKINES IN MEDICATION-NAIVE ADOLESCENTS WITH FIRST-EPISODE MDD

초록

Objectives It has been suggested that depression is correlated with stress and immune inflammatory responses, so many efforts are taken to identify the relationships between depression and inflammatory markers such as cytokines. This study is designed to identify the differences of cytokine levels between medication-naïve adolescent patients with first-episode MDD and a control group of normal adolescents, changes in cytokine levels before and after treatment in adolescents with depression, and relationships between cytokine levels and the severity of depressive symptoms. Methods Twenty-five adolescents with MDD and 25 healthy adolescents without any mental health disorder, ages between 13 and 18 years, are included in this study. The patient group with depression had blood sampling tests taken, as well as assessments of depression severity twice, before and after treatment, respectively, and the normal control group had blood sampling taken and assessments of depression severity once. Results Cytokine analysis results showed that the group of adolescents with depression had lower levels of interleukin 2 (IL-2), interferon gamma (INF-γ), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and IL-10 than those of healthy control subjects, and increased levels of IL-2, INF-γ, and IL-10 were observed after treatment in the patient group with depression. In addition, IFN-γ levels are correlated with the scores of the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD), which are the instruments for assessing the severity of depressive symptoms, whereas IL-10 only correlates with HAMD scores. Conclusions We expect to help to identify the role of immune responses involved in the development of depression in various age groups with a prospective analysis of the changes in cytokines in the group of medication-naïve adolescents with first-episode MDD.