Study results from University of Amsterdam update understanding of depression.(Clinical report)

"The serotonin system is undoubtedly involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). More specifically the serotonin transporter (SERT) serves as a major target for antidepressant drugs," scientists writing in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging report (see also Depression).

"There are conflicting results about SERT availability in depressed patients versus healthy controls. We aimed to measure SERT availability and study the effects of age, gender and season of scanning in MDD patients in comparison to healthy controls. We included 49 depressed outpatients (mean +/- SD 42.3 +/- 8.3 years) with a Hamilton depression rating scale score above 18, who were drug-naive or drug-free for a parts per thousand yen4 weeks, and 49 healthy controls matched for age (+/- 2 years) and sex. Subjects were scanned with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using [I-123]beta-CIT. SERT availability was expressed as specific to nonspecific binding ratios (BPND) in the midbrain and diencephalon with cerebellar binding as a reference. In crude comparisons between patients and controls, we found no significant differences in midbrain or diencephalon SERT availability. In subgroup analyses, depressed males had numerically lower midbrain SERT availability than controls, whereas among women SERT availability was not different (significant diagnosisxgender interaction; p = 0.048). In the diencephalon we found a comparable diagnosisxgender interaction (p = 0.002) and an additional smokingxgender (p = 0.036) interaction. In the midbrain ...