Status of inflammation and alcohol use in a 6-month follow-up study of patients with major depressive disorder

Abstract Introduction The studies on the relations between alcohol consumption, the status of inflammation and depression have produced conflicting results. In this study we followed patients with major depressive disorders by monitoring biomarkers of inflammation together with biomarkers of heavy alcohol use. Method The levels of IL-6 (interleukin-6), IL-8 (interleukin-8), hs-CRP (high sensitivity C-reactive protein), YKL-40 (also known as Chitinase-3-like protein 1 or CHI3L1) and biomarkers of alcohol consumption and liver status (GT, CDT, ALT, alkaline phosphatase) were measured at baseline and after 6 months of psychiatric treatment from 242 patients suffering from current major depressive disorder (MDD) with ( n = 99) or without ( n = 143) alcohol use disorder (AUD). Results At baseline the patients with MDD + AUD showed higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers IL-6 ( p p p p p Conclusions Alcohol consumption appears to modulate the status of inflammation in depressive patients. A more systematic use of biomarkers of inflammation together with biomarkers of alcohol consumption and liver status may prove to be of value in a more comprehensive assessment and treatment of patients with depression.