Comparison of monoamine oxidase A levels in patients with unipolar and bipolar depression

Introduction: Distinguishing bipolar depression (BD) and unipolar depression (UD) from each other has always been an important issue for every physician dealing with mental health and illness. Although there are some clinical clues for both types of depression, it is impossible to to differenciate between the two types of depression based on clinical symtoms alone. Our aim in our study is to compare the MAO-A enzyme levels in the peripheral blood of BD and UD patients and to contribute to the studies to distinguish between the two types of depression in this way. Materials and Methods: Our study included 40 patients diagnosed with BD according to DSM-5 criteria and 50 patients diagnosed with UD, who applied to the Dicle University Medical Faculty Hospital Psychiatry Department between January and June 2021. To the patients; Consent Form, Sociodemographic Data Form, Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADSS), THE Clinical Global İmpressions Scale (CGI) were applied. SPSS 19.0 statistical package program was used in the analysis of the data. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, gender, total education period, marital status, living with, income status, and working status (p>0.05). A statistically significant difference was found between the groups in the clinical characteristics, age of disease onset, median duration of treatment, mean number of depressive episodes, number of hospitalizations, family mood disorders, suicide attempts, treatment, and seasonal cycle (p:,001). However, it was not found statistically significant in terms of disease duration, presence of psychotic features and smoking (p>0.05).There was no significant difference between the mean of MADRS total score and the mean of CGI-S total score between patient groups (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the patient groups in terms of MAO-A levels (p>0.05). While a significant and very strong relationship was found between the number of attacks, the number of hospitalizations, CGI scores and MAO-A levels in bipolar patients. A significant and positive correlation was found between CGI scores and MAO-A level in UD patients. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference between MAO-A levels of patients with UD and MAO-A levels of patients with BD. While a significant and very strong relationship was found between the number of attacks, the number of hospitalizations, CGI scores and MAO-A levels in patients with BD. A significant and positive correlation was found between CGI scores and MAO-A levels of patients with UD. No significant relationship was found between other variables. Key words: Bipolar depression, unipolar depression, monoamine oxidase A