Abstract:
Objectives: Our goal in this field is to evaluate the relationship between levels of plasma HSCRP with depressive symptoms, in people with MDD under therapy.
Methods: This cross-sectional study included 90 patients with MDD that had been diagnosed previously to confirm their matching "DSM-5 criteria for MDD version 7.0.2", employing the "Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview", and was on antidepressants prescriptions for at least 4-months. The criteria of MDD were based on the total of self-administered inquiry forms obtainable for evaluating depression severity, comprising the 9-items: "Patient Health Questionnaire depression module (PHQ-9)". A venous sampling had been collected from all participants for white blood cells (WBCs) counts and HSCRP assays. Besides their BMI calculations. SPSS had used for all statistical tests.
Results: HSCRP mean serum levels were within normal ranges among MDD patients. The mean ages of the MDD patients were 39.5±0.9 years and most of them were obese, mean BMI=32.9±15.8 kg/m2. The mean WBCs count of the participants was within the normal ranges. The ratio of a male/female in this study was 1.64:1. There was a non-significant difference between the sexes in all study parameters. No significant variations in the distribution of HSCRP levels according to the scores of depression severity. There was no significant variation in the distribution of WBCs counts according to the severity of depressive thoughts. ROC curve when tested for the diagnostic ability of HSCRP revealed poor predictability to distinguish those with severe MDD from those with no or mild depressive thoughts: AUC=0.484, sensitivity=0.52, specificity=0.46, and p-value >0.05.
Discussion: The outcomes of our study highlighted the importance of low-grade inflammation as a risk factor of the new onset or even exacerbation of depression in patients` with MDD. This was reflected by a significant difference in the mean levels of serum HSCRP between those having mild and those with severe PHQ-9 scores. However, the mean serum levels of HSCRP were not correlated with severity of depressive symptoms.