Objective: In this study, we investigated the effects of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) on monocyte counts, High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) levels, and Monocyte to HDL ratios (MHR) among inflammatory markers.
Method: This is a retrospective case-control study. The case group of our study included 120 major depressive patients. The control group included 124 healthy individuals. The data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Clinical Global Impression Scale, and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The lipid profiles and complete blood count parameters of the case and control groups were tested and compared. The collected data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test and independent-samples t-test.
Results: A significant increase in the monocyte and MHR values and a decrease in the HDL values of the case group were observed with older ages (p<0.01). In the case group, the MHR and monocyte count values were higher, and the HDL levels were lower in the MDD patients who had never received treatment in comparison to those who had received treatment. As the severity of depression increased, MHR levels also increased.
Conclusion: Our study is the first study to show that MHR is significantly higher in MDD patients than healthy controls. It was also shown that depression severity and MHR are positively correlated. Consequently, MHR might be a simple, practical, and low-cost parameter which shows inflammation in MDD patients.