Investigation of serum levels of sortilin in response to antidepressant treatment.

BACKGROUND: The identification of biomarkers for depression is of great clinical relevance as the diagnosis is currently subjective. Recent research points towards sortilin as a potential biomarker for depression, and the aim of the current study was to investigate the serum sortilin level in response to antidepressant treatment.

METHODS: The study included 56 depressed individuals of which 41 responded to treatment. Depression scores and serum levels of sortilin were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks of antidepressant treatment. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata 13.

RESULTS: The depression score and response to treatment were not predicted by the sortilin level. Likewise, we observed no significant change in serum sortilin levels following 12 weeks of antidepressant treatment. Furthermore, no association between the serum sortilin level and depression score was observed.

CONCLUSION: The results do not point towards sortilin as a state-dependent biomarker.