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Pharmacopsychiatry 2009; 42(1): 23-28
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1085442
Original Paper

© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Insulin-like Growth Factor-I (IGF-I) Serum Concentrations in Depressed Patients: Relationship to Saliva Cortisol and Changes during Antidepressant Treatment

B. Weber-Hamann 1 , W. F. Blum 2 , 3 , J. Kratzsch 4 , M. Gilles 1 , I. Heuser 1 , 5 , M. Deuschle 1
  • 1Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
  • 2Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Co., Bad Homburg, Germany
  • 3University Children's Hospital, Giessen, Germany
  • 4Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany
  • 5Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany
Further Information

Publication History

received 28.03.2008 revised 07.07.2008

accepted 09.07.2008

Publication Date:
19 January 2009 (online)

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Abstract

Introduction: The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that total and free insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) serum concentrations in depressed patients are related to hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activity and show a longitudinal decline in patients responding to treatment as well as to declining HPA system activity.

Methods: We measured total and free IGF-I as well as IGF-binding protein-3 in 77 depressed patients after wash-out of pre-medication and again after 28 or 35 days of treatment with paroxetine or amitriptyline.

Results: Total but not free IGF-I serum concentrations are related to saliva cortisol concentrations in drug-free depressed patients. In responders to both amitriptyline and paroxetine, total IGF-I serum concentrations declined during treatment.

Discussion: Our findings show IGF-I to be related to HPA system activity and to decline in responders to treatment while serum concentrations of the biologically active free IGF-I are neither related to HPA system activity nor do they change during the course of treatment. Our data do not support the hypothesis that free IGF-I may play a major role in physical disturbances in depressed patients.

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Correspondence

B. Weber-HamannMD 

Central Institute of Mental Health

J5

68159 Mannheim

Germany

Phone: +49/621/1703 23 21

Fax: +49/621/1703 23 25

Email: bettina.hamann@zi-mannheim.de