Serum Levels of Chemokines in Adolescents with Major Depression Treated with Fluoxetine

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a global health issue that affects 350 million people of all ages. Although between 2% and 5.6% of affected individuals are adolescents, research on young patients is limited. The inflammatory response contributes to the onset of depression, and in adult MDD patients, symptom severity has been linked to chemokine levels.

Aim: To determine the differences in circulatory levels of chemokines in healthy volunteers (HVs) and adolescents with MDD, and assess the changes induced by fluoxetine consume.

Methods: The 22 adolescents with MDD were monitored during the first 8 wk of clinical follow-up and clinical psychiatric evaluation was done using the Hamilton depresión rating scale (HDRS). The serum levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, MIP-1β, interleukin (IL)-8, interferon gamma-induced protein (IP)-10, and eotaxin were measured in patients and HVs.

Results: In all cases, significant differences were detected in circulating chemokine levels between patients before treatment and HVs ( < 0.0001). All chemokines decreased at 4 wk, but only MCP-1 and IL-8 significantly differed ( < 0.05) between 0 wk and 4 wk. In the patients, all chemokines rose to their initial concentrations by 8 wk 0 wk, but only IP-10 did so significantly ( < 0.05). All patients experienced a significant decrease in HDRS scores at 4 wk ( < 0.0001) and 8 wk ( < 0.0001) compared with 0 wk.

Conclusion: Despite the consumption of fluoxetine, patients had significantly higher chemokine levels, even after considering the improvement in HDRS score. The high levels of eotaxin, IP-10, and IL-8 partially explain certain aspects that are affected in MDD such as cognition, memory, and learning.