Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Namık Kemal University, Tekirdag, Turkey.
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Namık Kemal University, Tekirdag, Turkey.
Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2014 Dec 12;10:2361-7. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S74826. eCollection 2014.
Vitiligo is an acquired pigmentary skin disease that can cause serious cosmetic problems. There have been numerous and well established studies that have demonstrated the comorbidity of various psychiatric disorders in patients with vitiligo. However, to our knowledge, there have been no studies investigating whether a psychiatric biomarker, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), is associated with vitiligo.
This study was conducted in Namık Kemal University Medical Faculty, Departments of Dermatology and Psychiatry between January 2013 and September 2014. After meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria, serum BDNF levels were assayed in 57 patients with first onset vitiligo and no known current or past psychiatric disorder and compared with BDNF levels in 58 age and sex matched healthy subjects.
The age and female/male ratios were similar between groups. The mean values of serum BDNF were 1.57±0.97 ng/dL and 2.37±1.73 ng/dL in the vitiligo group and in the healthy control group, respectively. The mean BDNF level was significantly higher in the healthy control group compared with the vitiligo group (t=2.76, P=0.007).
This is the first study to compare serum BDNF levels between patients with vitiligo and healthy subjects. The reduced level of serum BDNF in patients with vitiligo may be directly related to the etiology of vitiligo or associated with the high percentage of psychiatric disorders in that patient population. Further studies are needed to support our preliminary results.
白癜风是一种获得性色素皮肤疾病，可导致严重的美容问题。有许多经过充分证实的研究表明，白癜风患者存在多种精神障碍共病。然而，据我们所知，尚未有研究调查精神生物学标志物，如脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）是否与白癜风有关。
本研究于 2013 年 1 月至 2014 年 9 月在纳吉·肯麦尔大学医学院皮肤科和精神病科进行。符合纳入和排除标准后，测定了 57 例初发白癜风且无已知当前或既往精神障碍的患者的血清 BDNF 水平，并与 58 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者的 BDNF 水平进行比较。
两组的年龄和男女比例相似。白癜风组血清 BDNF 的平均值为 1.57±0.97ng/dL，健康对照组为 2.37±1.73ng/dL。健康对照组的平均 BDNF 水平明显高于白癜风组（t=2.76，P=0.007）。
这是第一项比较白癜风患者和健康对照者血清 BDNF 水平的研究。白癜风患者血清 BDNF 水平降低可能与白癜风的病因直接相关，或与该患者人群中精神障碍的高比例相关。需要进一步的研究来支持我们的初步结果。
