Abstract
Alcohol dependence is often comorbid with depression. The purpose of the present study was to compare serum brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels between depressive patients with and without alcohol dependence. Our subjects were 16 inpatients (M/F: 13/3, age: 48 ± 8 years) at our university hospital who met the DSM‐IV‐TR criteria for both major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence and whose Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM‐D) scores were at least 15. Twenty sex‐ and age‐matched depressive patients and 20 healthy subjects were also examined. Serum BDNF levels in the depressive patients with (9.0 ± 4.3 ng/ml) and without (9.8 ± 5.2 ng/ml) alcohol dependence were significantly lower than those in the healthy subjects (21.1 ± 7.0 ng/ml); however, no significant difference was found in the serum BDNF levels of depressive patients with and without alcohol dependence. Eight of the 16 (50%) depressive patients suffering from both depression and alcohol dependence responded to 8 weeks of treatment with antidepressant drugs which significantly increased their serum BDNF levels. These results suggest that the serum BDNF level is a useful biological marker for depression in patients with alcohol dependence. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.