title: Zinc as a marker of affective disorders.
abstract: Depression is considered as a chronic and recurring illness with functional impairment, significant disability, morbidity and mortality. Despite the extensive research carried out on depression, its pathophysiology is still poorly understood. An important problem concerning research into depressive disorder is the lack of biological markers which could improve diagnosis or indicate a risk of developing depression or risk of relapse. Several reports indicated decreased zinc concentrations and even its deficit in clinical depression, so the measurement of the concentration of this element in the blood of patients was suggested as a useful and specific clinical marker of depression. The reported results indicated that the serum zinc level might be a marker of depression as a state (state marker) in treatment responsive patients. However, in drug-resistant depression a decreased concentration of zinc may be a marker of traits (trait marker). It seems, however, that the measurement of the concentrations of zinc might be in the future a component of the battery of tests; of markers of immune activation and oxidative stress rather than itself alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kopernika 21a,PL 31-501 Kraków, Poland. siwekm@interia.pl; szewczyk@if-pan.krakow.pl.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siwek
authors.forename: Bernadeta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szewczyk
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dudek
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Styczeń
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sowa-Kućma
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Młyniec
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siwek
authors.forename: Leszek
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Witkowski
authors.forename: Bartłomiej
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pochwat
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nowak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology; D015032:Zinc / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015032:Zinc