Ozsoy Saliha, Esel Ertugrul, Kula Mustafa
Erciyes University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Kayseri, Turkey.
Psychiatry Res. 2009 Oct 30;169(3):249-52. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2008.06.034. Epub 2009 Sep 3.
Abnormalities in the neurohypophyseal system have been reported in depression. This study aimed to investigate serum oxytocin levels in patients with depression and the effects of gender and antidepressant treatment on these levels. Serum oxytocin levels were measured before and after treatment with antidepressant drugs or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 40 inpatients (30 women, 10 men) who met the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder (n=29) or bipolar affective disorder depressive episode (n=11), and in 32 healthy controls (20 women, 12 men). Serum oxytocin levels were decreased both pre-treatment and post-treatment in the patients compared with those in the controls. Serum oxytocin levels were not affected by antidepressant drug treatment or ECT. The female patients had significantly lower oxytocin levels than the control females, whereas no difference was found between the male patients and the male controls. We found no difference in serum levels of oxytocin between the unipolar and bipolar depressive patients. Our result shows reduced oxytocin in depression and a gender difference in oxytocin levels. Furthermore, antidepressant treatments appear to have no effect on serum oxytocin levels.
抑郁症患者中已报道存在神经垂体系统异常。本研究旨在调查抑郁症患者的血清催产素水平，以及性别和抗抑郁治疗对这些水平的影响。对40例符合《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第四版（DSM-IV）重度抑郁症标准（n = 29）或双相情感障碍抑郁发作标准（n = 11）的住院患者（30名女性，10名男性）以及32名健康对照者（20名女性，12名男性），在使用抗抑郁药物或电休克治疗（ECT）前后测量血清催产素水平。与对照组相比，患者治疗前和治疗后的血清催产素水平均降低。血清催产素水平不受抗抑郁药物治疗或ECT的影响。女性患者的催产素水平显著低于女性对照组，而男性患者与男性对照组之间未发现差异。我们发现单相和双相抑郁症患者的血清催产素水平没有差异。我们的结果显示抑郁症患者的催产素水平降低，且催产素水平存在性别差异。此外，抗抑郁治疗似乎对血清催产素水平没有影响。
