Link Between Depression and Inflammation and Metabolic Change

Depression, and not anxiety, is associated with inflammation, and metabolic change, revealed new research presented at the ECNP Congress. Netherlands Study of Anxiety and Depression (NESDA) scientists had used blood samples from:

• 304 people with current depression
• 548 with anxiety
• 531 with depression and anxiety
• 807 with remitted disorders
• 634 healthy controls.

Using a nuclear magnetic resonance detector, scientists tested for the link between 40 metabolites found in blood and depression and anxiety (such as panic, pathological worry, etc.).

Study Results

• The depressed group had greater inflammation and different amounts and lipid types in their blood than the anxious group.
• Depressed people had increased levels of triglycerides but decreased levels of omega-3-fatty acids.
• Anxious people had a lipid composition very similar to the healthy control group.
• Metabolites associated with depression were linked to the severity of the depression.
• In depressed people, the immune system and lipid metabolism changes but not in anxious people.

The researchers hope that these findings will lead to better treatments. "Our group is now planning to test whether depressed people with altered inflammation might respond to treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs", said Hilde de Kluiver, of Amsterdam UMC.

Commenting, Dr Philippe Nuss (Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris) said "This is an important finding for several reasons. First it identifies easy-to-measure blood biomarkers characterizing a subtype of depression whose underlying mechanism is specific and will probably need appropriate treatment. It also emphasizes the fact that mental disorders should be seen in a whole-body perspective where major regulatory physiological systems such as immunity and lipid metabolism are involved. In addition, both immunity and lipids are strongly involved in brain metabolism. It is thus not surprising that Ms de Kluiver's work shows that the severity of depression is greater in patients with more impaired biomarkers".

Source-Medindia