title: Study of the Serum Copper Levels in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
abstract: Copper may be involved in the pathophysiology of depression. Clinical data on this issue are very limited and not conclusive. The purpose of the study was to determine the copper concentration in the serum of patients with major depressive disorder and to discuss its potential clinical usefulness as a biomarker of the disease. A case-control clinical study included 69 patients with current depressive episode, 45 patients in remission and 50 healthy volunteers. Cu concentration was measured by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The mean serum copper level in depressed patients was slightly lower (by 11 %; not statistically significant) than in the control group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in Cu2+concentration between depressive episode and remission, nor between remission and control group. In the remission group were observed significant correlations between copper levels and the average number of relapses over the past years or time of remission. There was no correlation between serum copper and severity of depression, as measured by HDRS and MADRS. The obtained results showed no significant differences between the copper concentration in the blood serum of patients (both with current depressive episode and in remission) and healthy volunteers, as well as the lack of correlations between the copper level in the active stage of the disease and clinical features of the population. Our study is the first conducted on such a large population of patients, so the results may be particularly important and reliable source of knowledge about the potential role of copper in depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Affective Disorders, Chair of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Styczeń
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Laboratory of Trace Elements Neurobiology, Institute of Pharmacology PAS, Kraków, Poland. sowa@if-pan.krakow.pl.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sowa-Kućma
authors.affiliation: Department of Affective Disorders, Chair of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siwek
authors.affiliation: Department of Affective Disorders, Chair of Psychiatry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dudek
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Reczyński
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Laboratory of Trace Elements Neurobiology, Institute of Pharmacology PAS, Kraków, Poland.|Department of Pharmacobiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Paulina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Misztak
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Laboratory of Trace Elements Neurobiology, Institute of Pharmacology PAS, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Bernadeta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szewczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Studies, Institute of Public Health, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Topór-Mądry
authors.affiliation: Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Włodzimierz
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Opoka
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Laboratory of Trace Elements Neurobiology, Institute of Pharmacology PAS, Kraków, Poland.|Department of Pharmacobiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nowak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003300:Copper / Q000097:blood*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D003300:Copper
keywords: Affective disorders; Biomarkers; Copper; Depression; MDD; Unipolar depression