Simple peripheral markers for inflammation in adolescents with major depressive disorder

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), and red cell distribution width (RDW) were determined to be good indicators of inflammatory status. The aim of this study was to investigate NLR, PLR, MPV, and RDW, which can provide insight into diagnosis and/or prognosis in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to controls. METHOD: A total of 103 patients diagnosed with MDD, who received no antidepressant therapy within the past 1 month, were included in the study. The control group consisted of 41 healthy subjects with no organic and psychiatric disorders. RESULTS: NLR and MPV values were significantly high in adolescents with MDD compared with healthy controls (2.00 ± 0.80 vs. 1.63 ± 0.64, P = .011; 10.25 ± 0.91 vs. 9.62 ± 1.23, P = .005). There was no difference between the groups on PLR and RDW. There was a positive correlation between NLR and Children's Depression Scale (CDI) scores in the total study group (r = 0.229, P = .006). There was also a positive correlation between MPV and CDI scores in the total study group (r = 0.185, P = .028). CONCLUSION: The findings of the study reveal that NLR and MPV tend to be higher in adolescents with MDD, and higher NLR values are associated with higher CDI scores in adolescents. The findings of this study are consistent with the relevant literature of inflammatory status in MDD. Our study gave us an idea of the need for larger sample study on the routine use of blood parameters in adolescent depression.

Simple Peripheral Markers for Inflammation in Drug-Naive, Comorbidity-Free Adolescents with Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

“…In the study evaluating hemogram parameters in adults with OCD, Atmaca et al reported that there were no significant differences between groups regarding hemogram parameters except neutrophil count (33). In a study conducted in patients with adolescent depression, while only NLR in the patient group was significantly higher than the control group, there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding PLR and MPV (43). The results of our study can be interpreted as similar to the studies in which no significant difference in these variables was found with other psychiatric disorders.…”

“…In a study exploring inflammation in autistic children, there was no significant difference in mean RDW of the patient group compared to controls (42). In a study evaluating adolescent patients with depression, there was no significant difference in terms of RDW levels when compared to the control group (43). RDW has been investigated children with acute appendicitis (27), acute rheumatic carditis (44) and sepsis (45).…”

Evaluation of the Indicators of Inflammation in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: Effect of Sex and Subtype

“…In a study on platelet and MPV levels in ADHD, MPV found to be higher than controls, but no difference found in platelet levels (22). There are some studies which indicate NLR as an inflammatory marker can increase in depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (19,(23)(24)(25)(26). PLR is a sensitive inflammatory marker and prognostic factor in some malignancies (27).…”

Copy number variation-based gene set analysis reveals cytokine signalling pathways associated with psychiatric comorbidity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

“…Through the activation of the inflammatory pathways in the brain parenchyma, cytokines can influence the monoamine, glutamate and neuropeptide systems (Felger and Lotrich, 2013;Lotrich, 2015). The activation of the immune system and increasing blood cytokine levels have been observed in numerous psychiatric disorders including depression and anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and autism (Berk et al, 2013;Filiano et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2016;Kronfol, 2000;Uçar et al, 2018). Inflammatory cytokines can cause the depressive-like symptoms induced by cytokine-based treatment for certain cancers and viral infections (Lotrich, 2009).…”