THE EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION ON ENDOICRINE AND IMMUNE SYSTEMS

To study the effect of depression on the endocrine and immune systems, 557 male freshman and sophomore medical students (20-30 years old) were given Beck's Depression Inventory. Students with marks 5 or above were selected as the control (n=26) and those with marks of 20 or higher were chosen as the test group (n=27). All of the students were subjected to the following tests: CBC, differential, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), HDL-c, VLDL-c, fibrinogen (Fibr), cortisol (Cort), prolactin (PRL), testosterone(Test), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), total serum immunoglobulins (Ig), IgA, IgG, IgM, creatine kinase (CK), and C3 and C4 components of the complement system. Results indicated statistically significant increases of the following parameters in the test group as compared with the controls: TC (P < 0.05), LDL-c (P < 0.05), CK (P < 0.025), Fibr (P < 0.0 1), Test (P < 0.05), Cort (P < 0.025), IgG (P < 0.025) and Ig (P < 0.025). The results were in accordance with the anticipated hormonal and cell-mediated immunity alterations caused by depression, which affected both cytokines and endorphin levels. In spite of the limited number of subjects used in this study and lack of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST), the overall approach of this study is encouraging nevertheless, further studies using a 1zrger sample are required.