The relationship between basal plasma B-endorphin levels and the severity of major depressive episode

SUMMARY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BASAL PLASMA s-ENDORPHIN LEVELS AND THE SEVERITY OF MAJOR DEPRESSIVE EPISODE Objective: Although several studies performed in depressed patients have shown a deficiency in endorphin activity, plasma studies of s-Endorphin (s-EP) in depressive disorders have produced conflicting results so far. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that possible changes in basal s-EP levels are related to severity of major depressive episode. Methods: 36 patients (17 females, 19 males) who were diagnosed to have major depressive episode according to the DSMIV criteria (mean age±SD:48.6±13.2) and admitted to the psychiatric ward of our university teaching hospital and 13 healthy subjects (mean age 38.70±10) participated in the study. They had HAM-D and MADRS scores above 15 and 8, respectively, at the time of evaluation. Morning plasma s-EP levels were determined with standart RIA kits. Results: Basal plasma values of sEP were significantly higher in the patients than in the control subjects (t=2.66 p<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between basal plasma s-EP levels and HAM-D and MADRS scores (r=0.59 p<0.05 and r=0.57 p<0.05, respectively). Conclusion: Our data support the hypotheses that: 1) Significantly higher plasma s-EP levels in patients with major depressive episode compared to controls reflect a central limbic disturbance. 2) Significantly correlated plasma s-EP levels with severity of depressive symptoms also reflect magnitude of central limbic disturbance during major depressive episode.