engleski

Peripheral serotonergic markers in psychiatric disorders

In the quest for the possible biological marker that would be an indicator of the particular psychiatric disorders, platelets were used as a model of the central serotonergic synaptosomes (Stahl, 1985 ; Camacho and Dimsdale, 2000), Platelet 5-HT concentration was affected by the subtype of depression and/or schizophrenia, suicidal behaviour, particular depressive symptoms, but not by the presence or the severity of PTSD symptoms. Although platelet MAO activity was proposed to be a biological marker for the vulnerability to some psychiatric disorders (Oreland and Shaskan, 1983), similar platelet MAO activity was found among groups of war veterans with or without PTSD and prisoners of war, or between healthy controls and depressed and/or schizophrenic patients. Since PTSD is an illness with high chronicity, comorbidity and severity, accompanied by different neuroendocrine and nerochemical alterations, and different clinical manifestation, further studies of other peripheral 5-HT variables and other biological markers in PTSD might contribute to a better understanding of this complex disease. Our results suggest that platelet 5-HT concentration, but not platelet MAO activity, might be used as a peripheral biological marker for particular type of psychiatric disorder. In the search for the possible predictor of the therapeutic outcome, different biochemical variables were reported to possess some predictive value of the treatment outcome, but our data suggest that in depressed patients pretreatment platelet 5-HT concentration might indicate the treatment reponse to particular antidepressants.

blood platelets; serotonin; psychiatric disorders;

nije evidentirano