Reduced Venous Blood Basophil Count and Anxious Depression in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
- Author:
Ji Hyun BAEK
1
;
Hee Jin KIM
;
Maurizio FAVA
;
David MISCHOULON
;
George I PAPAKOSTAS
;
Andrew NIERENBERG
;
Jung Yoon HEO
;
Hong Jin JEON
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Anxious depression; Basophil; Inflammation
- MeSH: Anxiety; Basophils*; Demography; Depression*; Depressive Disorder, Major*; Eosinophils; Humans; Inflammation; Leukocytes; Neurobiology
- From:Psychiatry Investigation 2016;13(3):321-326
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Anxious depression has a distinct neurobiology, clinical course and treatment response from non-anxious depression. Role of inflammation in anxious depression has not been examined. As an exploratory study to characterize the role of inflammation on a development of anxious depression, we aimed to determine the relationship between white blood cell (WBC) subset counts and anxiety in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS: A total of 709 patients who were newly diagnosed with MDD were recruited. Anxiety levels of participants were evaluated using the Anxiety/ Somatization subitem of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The association between WBC subset fraction and anxiety was evaluated. RESULTS: Basophil and eosinophil sub-fractions showed significant negative correlations with HAM-D anxiety/somatization factor scores (basophils: r=-0.092, p=0.014 and eosinophils: r=-0.075, p=0.046). When an anxiety score (a sum of somatic and psychic anxiety) was entered as a dependent variable, only basophils showed significant negative association with the anxiety scores after adjusting for all other WBC subset counts and demographic factors (t=-2.57, p=0.010). CONCLUSION: This study showed that anxious depression had a decreased basophil subfraction, which might be associated with involvement of inflammation in development of anxious depression.
