ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Psichiatrica 2017 March;58(1):10-6

DOI: 10.23736/S0391-1772.17.01925-2

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Comparison of serum zinc level in patients with major depression with a healthy control group

Sirus PAKSERESHT, Masoumeh NAZARINASAB, Forough GHANAVATI ✉

Department of Psychiatry, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

BACKGROUND: Depression is one of the most important reasons for thepathogenesis and the World Health Organization has predicted that depression can be seen as the second cause leading to the world cost of disease in 2020. Mood disorders and depression are associated with low levels of zinc in the body, and enough intakes of zinc supplementation causes well-being of public modes in the body. Zinc is an important regulator of glutaminergic transport. Zinc deficiency is associated with a range of psychological symptoms, especially depression. This study aimed to compare mean zinc serum level between patients and healthy control people for assessment the role of zinc in depression.
METHODS: In this study, 3 cc of blood was taken from patients with a diagnosis of major depression admitted in the psychiatric wards for men and women in Ahvaz Golestan Hospital. The blood sample was taken in the first week of hospitalization and diagnosis of major depression was done after an interview with a psychiatrist and based on DSM-IV-TR criteria for depression. After psychiatric interviews with people in the control group and determining a lack of the symptoms of depression and psychiatric disorders in them, 3 cc of blood wastaken from thecandidates. Zinc concentration was measured using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The two groups were compared with each other on the serum zinc level. The data analyzed use statistical methods oft-test and Pearson correlation coefficient.
RESULTS: The results showed that there is a difference between the two groups in terms of mean serum zinc levels. Mean serum zinc levels in patients was 91.46±12.827 and in the healthy control group it was 95.18±7.78 (P value=0.020).
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirmed information obtained from the past investigations and demonstrated that there is probably a relationship between the serum zinc level and depression.

KEY WORDS: Depression - Zinc - Psychiatry