ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2010
The possible role of the kynurenine pathway in adolescent depression with melancholic features.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 118 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Ketamine's effect on inflammation and kynurenine pathway in depression: A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2021Pooled it
- Metabolomic signature of exposure and response to citalopram/escitalopram in depressed outpatients.Translational psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Omega-3 supplementation associated with improved parent-rated executive function in youth with mood disorders: secondary analyses of the omega 3 and therapy (OATS) trials.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2018Trial
- The kynurenine pathway in relation to depression and anhedonia symptom severity among women with HIV.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Kynurenine pathway dysregulation in major depressive disorder: the convergence of excitotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Review
- A Systematic Review: Investigating Biomarkers of Anhedonia and Amotivation in Depression and Cannabis Use.JAACAP open · 2025Review
- Current Insight into Biological Markers of Depressive Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The correlation of inflammation, tryptophan-kynurenine pathway, and suicide risk in adolescent depression.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Immunological correlates of suicidality among adolescents with internalizing symptoms.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- C-Reactive Protein Does Not Predict Future Depression Onset in Adolescents: Preliminary Findings from a Longitudinal Study.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- The major biogenic amine metabolites in mood disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Biomarker-Guided Tailored Therapy in Major Depression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Changes in tryptophan breakdown associated with response to multimodal treatment in depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Early antidepressant treatment response prediction in major depression using clinical and TPH2 DNA methylation features based on machine learning approaches.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- The tryptophan catabolite or kynurenine pathway in major depressive and bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Review
- Cytokine alterations in pediatric internalizing disorders: Systematic review and exploratory multi-variate meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
- Could the kynurenine pathway be the key missing piece of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) complex puzzle?Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- The Kynurenine Pathway and Kynurenine 3-Monooxygenase Inhibitors.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD) is acknowledged to be a heterogeneous disorder, no studies have reported on biological correlates of its clinical subgroups. This study addresses this issue by examining whether adolescent MDD with and without melancholic features (M-MDD and NonM-MDD) have distinct biological features in the kynurenine pathway (KP). The KP is initiated by pro-inflammatory cytokines via induction of the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), which degrades tryptophan (TRP) into kynurenine (KYN). KYN is further metabolized into neurotoxins linked to neuronal dysfunction in MDD. Hypotheses were that, compared to healthy controls and to NonM-MDD adolescents, adolescents with M-MDD would exhibit: (i) increased activation of the KP [i.e., increased KYN and KYN/TRP (reflecting IDO activity)]; (ii) greater neurotoxic loads [i.e., increased 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3-HAA, neurotoxin) and 3-HAA/KYN (reflecting production of neurotoxins)]; and (iii) decreased TRP. We also examined relationships between severity of MDD and KP metabolites.
methodsSubjects were 20 adolescents with M-MDD, 30 adolescents with NonM-MDD, and 22 healthy adolescents. MDD episode duration had to be >or= 6 weeks and Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) scores were >or= 36. Blood samples were collected at AM after an overnight fast and analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography. Group contrasts relied on analysis of covariance based on ranks, adjusted for age, gender, and CDRS-R scores. Analyses were repeated excluding medicated patients. Fisher's protected least significant difference was used for multiple comparisons.
resultsAs hypothesized, KYN/TRP ratios were elevated and TRP concentrations were reduced in adolescents with M-MDD compared to NonM-MDD adolescents (p = .001 and .006, respectively) and to healthy controls (p = .008 and .022, respectively). These findings remained significant when medicated patients were excluded from the analyses. Significant correlations were obtained exclusively in the M-MDD group between KYN and 3-HAA/KYN and CDRS-R.
conclusionsFindings support the notion that adolescent M-MDD may represent a biologically distinct clinical syndrome.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.