Comparison of no and adma levels in pre-treatment and post-treatment of patients with major depression with control group

Objectives: The aim of this study is to research whether the blood NO and ADMA levels of patients with major depression (MD) can be used as a distinctive indicator or not by comparing with the healthy controls, finding answers for the relatioship between NO and ADMA levels with the severity of illness and relativity of ADMA and NO levels among the patient groups. Materials and methods:According to DSM-IV-TR 40 patients with major depression and 40 individuals with similar socio-demographic elements as control group included to this study. The severity of depression was evaluated with the Montgomery?Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. Also 5 cc intravenous blood samples collected from the patients and the control group for determining blood NO and ADMA levels before and after the treatment. Age, gender, marital status, level of education, economical status, smoking of cigarettes were questioned as sociodemographic elements. Result: There was a statistically significant highness of post-treatment average serum nitrate levels when compared with the pre-treatment nitrate levels of MD patient group. (p<0,01, p=0,001) The pre-treatment average serum ADMA levels of study group were lower than the post-treatment ADMA levels. And the difference was statistically significant. (p>0,01=0,000) Patients? response to the treatment was evaluated with MADRS. There was a statictically significant decrease in the severity of depression after treatment. (p>0,01=0,000) Conclusions: According to our findings patients with MD have lower initial NO levels, higher ADMA (inhibates NO synthesing enzyme NOS) levels than the control group and their MADRS scores for evaluating severity of depression was higher. After the treatment with anti-depressant (escitalopram) some MD patients have higher NO levels than pre-treatment and some have similar NO levels with the control group. Also ADMA levels and MADRS scores were decreased at study group. Our study indicates that there is a significant correlation between NO and ADMA levels of patients with major depression, serum NO and ADMA levels can be used as a distinctive indicator, NO and ADMA levels may be related with the severity of the illness and there?s a relativity of serum ADMA and NO levels among patient groups. Further studies with wider patient groups are needed for supporting our hypothesis. Key words: NO, ADMA, major depression, control group v