The change of insulin levels after six weeks antidepressant use in drug-naïve major depressive patients

AbstractBackground procal relationship between diabetes risk and depression has been reported. There are few studies investigating glucose–insulin homeostasis before and after short-term antidepressant treatment in drug-naïve major depressive disorder (MDD) patients. s tudy included 104 healthy controls and 50 drug-naïve MDD patients diagnosed according to the DSM-IV criteria. These MDD patients were randomly assigned to receive fluoxetine or venlafaxine for six weeks. Depressive symptoms, body mass index, fasting plasma levels of glucose and insulin were measured. s ed to the healthy controls, the fasting plasma insulin and the homeostasis model of assessment for pancreatic β-cell secretory function (HOMA-β) was significantly lower in the MDD patients before antidepressant treatment (7.7±4.8 μIU/mL vs. 5.1±4.2 μIU/mL, p=0.006; 114.2±72.3% vs. 74.8±52.0%, p=0.005, respectively). However, these indices were not correlated with depression severity. After 6 weeks of fluoxetine or venlafaxine treatment, the level of HOMA-β borderline significantly increased (108.1±75.5%, p=0.059). tions udy was limited by the follow-up duration and lack of a placebo group. sions pressants might affect insulin secretion independently of the therapeutic effects on MDD. Further studies are needed to investigate the long-term effects of antidepressants on insulin regulation in MDD patients.