The role of inflammation in major depressive disorder (MDD) has been of growing interest over the past two decades and evidence suggests it plays a role in depression. Evidence linking inflammation to MDD comes from three different observations (a) elevated levels of inflammatory markers in patients with MDD, even in the absence of illness, (b) co-occurrence of MDD with inflammatory illnesses a...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating psychiatric disease. The dysregulated cytokines in depression are assumed due to the hyperactivation of immune system. Here we aimed evaluate serum interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) MDD. This study recruited 87 MDD patients age sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). increased levels IL-1β TNF-α were observed among patients....

BACKGROUND Psychiatric disorders have been hypothesized to share common etiological pathways with obesity, suggesting related neurobiological bases. We aimed to examine whether CRTC1 polymorphisms were associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and to test the association of these polymorphisms with obesity markers in several large case-control samples with MDD. METHODS The association b...

BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) co-occurs frequently with personality disorders (PDs). The extent to which this results from shared genetic or environmental risk factors remains uncertain. METHOD Young adult twins (n=2801) from the population-based Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel were assessed at personal interview for DSM-IV lifetime MDD and the 10 Axis II PDs. The...

BACKGROUND Family study data from a large community sample of young adults and their first-degree relatives were used to examine three questions regarding the relation between subthreshold depression (SubD) and major depressive disorder (MDD): (a) is there an elevated rate of MDD in the relatives of probands with SubD? (b) does SubD aggregate in the families of probands with MDD and SubD? (c) i...

BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) may be associated with oxidative damage to lipids, which can potentially affect mood-regulating pathways. This meta-analysis summarizes current knowledge regarding lipid peroxidation markers in clinical samples of MDD and the effects of antidepressant pharmacotherapy on those markers. METHODS MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Collaborat...

Depression is highly prevalent and one of the major contributors to disability worldwide. However, one of the findings from the DSM-5 field trials was that inter-rater reliability for diagnosing major depressive disorder was very poor. Why is diagnosing MDD so challenging? This article attempts to explain why undefined pathogenesis and complicated phenotypes complicate the diagnosis of MDD. How...

BACKGROUND Convergent studies suggest that morphological abnormalities of frontal-subcortical circuits which involved with emotional and cognitive processing may contribute to the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). Antidepressant treatment which has been reported to reverse the functional abnormalities of frontal-subcortical circuits in MDD may have treating effects to related ...

Cognitive impairments in major depressive disorder (MDD) are consistent and replicable findings with significant clinical impact. The aggregated estimated effect size of cognitive deficits in MDD is small to medium. However, pronounced deficits in executive function is evident in ~ 20-30% of adult MDD patients. Other replicated deficits are in the domains of working memory, attention, and psych...

BACKGROUND There is controversy about differential meaningfulness between comorbid generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)/ major depressive disorder (MDD), the corresponding "pure" disorders and subthreshold conditions. We compared subjects who met DSM-IVTR criteria of symptoms and functional impairment for comorbid GAD/MDD, versus those with GAD, MDD, subthreshold conditions, and without significa...