A recent study conducted by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggests certain metabolites may be predictive indicators for persons at risk for recurrent major depressive disorder. The findings were published in the online issue of Translational Psychiatry. Senior author Robert K Naviaux, MD, PhD, said, “This is evidence for a mitochondrial nexus at the heart of depression. It's a small study, but it is the first to show the potential of using metabolic markers as predictive clinical indicators of patients at greatest risk – and lower risk – for recurring bouts of major depressive symptoms.”
Naviaux and colleagues in The Netherlands for their study, recruited 68 subjects with rMDD who were in antidepressant-free remission and 59 age and gender-matched controls. After collecting blood from patients who were in remission, the patients were followed prospectively for two-and-a-half years. Results showed that a metabolic signature found when patients were well could predict which patients were most likely to relapse up to two-and-a-half years in the future. The accuracy of this prediction was more than 90 per cent.
The researchers found that in subjects with rMDD, changes in specific metabolites in six identified metabolic pathways resulted in fundamental alterations of important cellular activities. Naviaux said, “The findings revealed an underlying biochemical signature in remitted rMDD that set diagnosed patients apart from healthy controls. These differences are not visible through ordinary clinical assessment, but suggest that the use of metabolomics - the biological study of metabolites - could be a new tool for predicting which patients are most vulnerable to a recurrence of depressive symptoms.”
