Predictive Value of C-Reactive Protein for Antidepressant Treatment Response in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder
10.22722/KJPM.2025.33.2.86
- Author:
Hyun KIM
1
;
Kang Joon LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Psychiatry, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
- Publication Type:Original Articles
- From:Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
2025;33(2):86-92
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Objectives:：Recent studies have increasingly focused on identifying biological markers predictive of antidepressant treatment response. This study aimed to evaluate whether baseline levels of C-reactive protein(CRP) are significantly associated with treatment response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) inpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD).
Methods:：Among 60 outpatients diagnosed with MDD according to DSM-5 criteria, 38 patients completed the study. Participants were treated with escitalopram for 8 weeks. Serum CRP levels were measured prior to medication, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, 17-item ver-sion (HAMD-17) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) at baseline and week 8. Pearson correlation and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between baseline CRP levels and treatment response.
Results:：Depressive symptoms significantly improved after treatment. However, baseline CRP levels were not significantly correlated with symptom changes. CRP was not a significant predictor of treatment response,and its predictive validity was limited.
Conclusions:：This study suggests that CRP may have limited utility as a biological predictor of SSRI treat-ment response in patients with MDD. Future research should incorporate larger sample sizes and multimodal biomarker-based predictive models.
