Serum Levels Of Estraliol, Progesterone And Testosterone In Patients With Depression

BACKGROUND: The sex difference of the genesis in patients with depression caused the interesting of the studies on gonadal glands of patients with depression. But most of the studies focused on the alternation of estradal in perimenstrual syndrome, postpartum depression, postmenopausal depression and so on, which are the specific physical phases of women. At the same time, a lot of the studies on alternation of androgen in depression patients were carried on men patients. There were a few of reports about the alternation of androgen in women patients. Furthermore, the conclusions are different. OBJECTIVE: To detect the serum estradiol, progesterone and testosterone in depressive patients, and evaluate the relationships between the sexual hormones and the clinical features. METHODS: The serum estradiol, progesterone and testosterone levels were measured by Emzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 30 patients (men 15 and women 15) fulfilling CCMD-2-R criteria for depression and 26 normal controls (men 13 and women 13). We also evaluated therelationships between three hormones levels and HAMD scores, HAMA scores, and the seriousness of the disease, and the outcome of paroxetine treatment. RESULTS: The estradiol levels of men and women patients before treatment were significantly lower than that of the normal controls. The testosterone levels of men patients were significantly lower than that of the controls, but they were not deferent between women patients and the controls. There were not significantly deferent in the progesterone levels between patients in both men and women and the normal controls. After treatment, the estradiol levels of men and women patients with depression increased significantly, but were still lower than that of the controls; the testosterone levels of the depressed men increased significantly; the deference of the progesterone levels in patients between before treatment and after treatment was not significant. The HAMD scores and HAMA scores of depression patients had a significantly negative correlation with estradiol levels, which had not correlation with progesterone and testosterone. There was a positive correlation between the diminution of HAMD scores and the serum estradiol levels before treatment. The serum estradiol levels of patients effected of paroxtine treatment were significantly higher than that of not effected. CONCLUSION: 1. The serum estradiol levels in both men and women with depression decreased, and had negative correlation with HAMD scores and HAMA scores, and hadpositive correlation with diminution of HAMD scores. It suggested that the serum estrodiol level may become a standard of forecasting the anti-depressive outcomes. 2. The serum testosterone levels of men patients were significantly lower than that of the controls, but not in women patients. It suggested that there may be a different genesis between men and women patients with depression, or there may be a different alternation of endocrine in men and women patients. It also suggested that men patients with depression might explore more endocrinal disorder than women with depression. 3. There was not significant alternation in progesterone levels of depression patients. The progesterone levels were not different significantly after paroxetine treatment.