TY - JOUR
T1 - VEGF serum levels in depressed patients during SSRI antidepressant treatment
AU - Ventriglia, Mariacarla
AU - Zanardini, Roberta
AU - Pedrini, Laura
AU - Placentino, Anna
AU - Nielsen, Maria Gabriela
AU - Gennarelli, Massimo
AU - Bocchio-Chiavetto, Luisella
PY - 2009/2/1
Y1 - 2009/2/1
N2 - Recent evidence indicates that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may be involved in the neuronal mechanisms underlying both the depression aetiology and the response to pharmacological and non pharmacological antidepressant treatments. To investigate whether VEGF peripheral levels are altered in depression and are modulated by antidepressant therapies, we analyzed the serum VEGF concentrations in 25 subjects affected by major depression (MD) before (T0) and after 8 (T8) and 12 (T12) weeks of escitalopram treatment. No significant alterations in VEGF serum levels were found at T0, even considering possible effects of confounders such as gender and smoking habit (r2 = 0.227 p = 0.74). No changes appeared during the treatment (F(1.83, 43.86) = 0.962; p = 0.383) and there was no correlation between percentage VEGF variations at T12 and symptoms improvements (p = 0.823). The present work represents the first report on the evaluation of serum VEGF levels in MD patients. However, before discarding serum VEGF as a biochemical marker in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, our negative results need to be confirmed in larger patient samples stratified for clinical characteristics, co-morbidities, cardiovascular diseases and confounding factors.
AB - Recent evidence indicates that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may be involved in the neuronal mechanisms underlying both the depression aetiology and the response to pharmacological and non pharmacological antidepressant treatments. To investigate whether VEGF peripheral levels are altered in depression and are modulated by antidepressant therapies, we analyzed the serum VEGF concentrations in 25 subjects affected by major depression (MD) before (T0) and after 8 (T8) and 12 (T12) weeks of escitalopram treatment. No significant alterations in VEGF serum levels were found at T0, even considering possible effects of confounders such as gender and smoking habit (r2 = 0.227 p = 0.74). No changes appeared during the treatment (F(1.83, 43.86) = 0.962; p = 0.383) and there was no correlation between percentage VEGF variations at T12 and symptoms improvements (p = 0.823). The present work represents the first report on the evaluation of serum VEGF levels in MD patients. However, before discarding serum VEGF as a biochemical marker in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, our negative results need to be confirmed in larger patient samples stratified for clinical characteristics, co-morbidities, cardiovascular diseases and confounding factors.
KW - Antidepressant
KW - Depression
KW - Escitalopram
KW - Serum
KW - VEGF
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U2 - 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.11.009
DO - 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.11.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 19059450
AN - SCOPUS:58149479332
VL - 33
SP - 146
EP - 149
JO - Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
JF - Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
SN - 0278-5846
IS - 1
ER -