High serum uric acid level in adolescent depressive patients

Background: Depression disorder is a mental illness of high recurrence rate and its pathological mechanism is still unclear. 5-HT is the most widely studied neurotransmitter and high level of serum uric acid (SUA) can result from the increased oxygenolysis of nucleic acid. Aim of the present study is to explore the pathogenesis of adolescence depression through the study of SUA and 5-HT level in adolescent depressive patients. Methods: The SUA of 152 adolescent depressive patients and normal adolescents were tested respectively and 5-HT levels among them were analyzed. Results: The SUA level of cases (434.57 +/- 102.34 mu mol/L) was significantly higher than controls (330.18 +/- 62.59 mu mol/L), P < 0.001; the 5-HT level of cases (20.86 +/- 4.58) was significantly lower than controls (24.03 +/- 5.76) (P < 0.005) and had a significant negative correlation with SUA level (r=-0.49, P < 0.01). Limitations: The sample size was relatively small and the patients were only male from General Hospital of Beijing Military Region. Conclusions: High level of SUA can be used as a biochemical index for the early diagnose of adolescence depression; adolescence depression may be due to DNA oxidative damage of neurons in brain. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.