title: Reduced Venous Blood Basophil Count and Anxious Depression in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Anxious depression has a distinct neurobiology, clinical course and treatment response from non-anxious depression. Role of inflammation in anxious depression has not been examined. As an exploratory study to characterize the role of inflammation on a development of anxious depression, we aimed to determine the relationship between white blood cell (WBC) subset counts and anxiety in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 709 patients who were newly diagnosed with MDD were recruited. Anxiety levels of participants were evaluated using the Anxiety/ Somatization subitem of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The association between WBC subset fraction and anxiety was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Basophil and eosinophil sub-fractions showed significant negative correlations with HAM-D anxiety/somatization factor scores (basophils: r=-0.092, p=0.014 and eosinophils: r=-0.075, p=0.046). When an anxiety score (a sum of somatic and psychic anxiety) was entered as a dependent variable, only basophils showed significant negative association with the anxiety scores after adjusting for all other WBC subset counts and demographic factors (t=-2.57, p=0.010).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that anxious depression had a decreased basophil subfraction, which might be associated with involvement of inflammation in development of anxious depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Depression Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.; Bipolar Clinic and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Ji Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Baek
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine & Genetics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hee-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fava
authors.affiliation: Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mischoulon
authors.affiliation: Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: George I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Papakostas
authors.affiliation: Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.; Departments of Health Sciences & Technology, Management & Research, Clinical Research Design & Evaluation, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology (SAIHST), Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nierenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Depression Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Yoon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Heo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Depression Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.; Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.; Departments of Health Sciences & Technology, Management & Research, Clinical Research Design & Evaluation, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology (SAIHST), Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hong Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jeon
keywords: Anxious depression; Basophil; Inflammation