Citation

Sheldrick A, Camara S, Ilieva M, Riederer P, Michel TM. Eur. Psychiatry 2017; 46: 65-71.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.06.009

PMID

29102768

Abstract

The neurotrophic factors (NTF) hypothesis of depression was postulated nearly a decade ago and is nowadays widely acknowledged. Previous reports suggest that cerebral concentrations of NTF may be reduced in suicide victims who received minimal or no antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Recent evidence suggests that antidepressant treatment may improve or normalise cerebral concentrations of neurotrophic factors. Therefore, we examined the concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin 3 (NT3) in different brain regions (cortex, cingulate gyrus, thalamus, hippocampus, putamen and nucleus caudatus) of 21 individuals - 7 patients of which 4 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and overall age 86.8±5 years who received antidepressant pharmacotherapy (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors [SSRI]; tricyclic antidepressants [TCA]), 3 patients with MDD without antidepressant treatment and overall age 84.3±5 years versus 14 unaffected subjects at age 70.3±13.8. We detected significant elevation of BDNF (parietal cortex) and NT3 (parietal, temporal and occipital cortex, cingulate gyrus, thalamus, putamen and nucleus caudatus regions) in MDD patients who received antidepressant medication compared to MDD untreated patients and controls. Moreover, we detected a significant decrease of NT3 levels in the parietal cortex of patients suffering from MDD non-treated patients without treatment compared to healthy individuals. Although the limited statistical power due to the small sample size in this proof of concept study corroborates data from previous studies, which show that treatment with antidepressants mediates alterations in neuroplasticity via the action of NTF. However, more research using post-mortem brain tissue with larger samples needs to be carried out as well as longitudinal studies to further verify these results.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Adult; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Depression; Suicide; Autopsy; Psychiatry; Aged, 80 and over; Case-Control Studies; Antidepressants; Antidepressive Agents; Brain; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; Psychopharmacology; Affective disorders; Depressive Disorder, Major; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; Neuronal Plasticity; Nerve Growth Factors; Neurotrophin 3; Proof of Concept Study; Molecular biology