ArticleEuropean archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience2022
Disturbance of neurotransmitter metabolism in drug-naïve, first-episode major depressive disorder: a comparative study on adult and adolescent cohorts.
Article in European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Tryptophan-Kynurenine Pathway as a Key Mediator of the Gut-Brain Axis in Depression and Alzheimer's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Development and validation of dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with LC-MS/MS for plasma 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid quantification with application as a biomarker in major depressive disorder.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Metabolic-Brain Functional Coupling Mechanism Underlying iTBS Treatment for Adolescent Depression.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Article
- The potential role of kynurenine pathway and inflammation in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without major depressive disorder comorbidity.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Analysis of gut microbiota and intestinal mucosal neurotransmitter changes and their correlation in adolescent depression mice.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Article
- Screening for peripheral blood biomarkers and construction of a diagnostic model for adolescent depression based on metabolomics and machine learning.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Current Insight into Biological Markers of Depressive Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Microbiota alterations leading to amino acid deficiency contribute to depression in children and adolescents.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Non-human primate seasonal transcriptome atlas reveals seasonal changes in physiology and diseases.Nature communications · 2025Article
- High-intensity transcranial alternating current stimulation combined with pharmacotherapy for adolescent major depressive disorder: a prospective case report study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Shared and unique alterations of large-scale network connectivity in drug-free adolescent-onset and adult-onset major depressive disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Serum neuroactive metabolites of the tryptophan pathway in patients with acute phase of affective disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Prenatal SAMe Treatment Induces Changes in Brain Monoamines and in the Expression of Genes Related to Monoamine Metabolism in a Mouse Model of Social Hierarchy and Depression, Probably via an Epigenetic Mechanism.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Neurotransmitter metabolism plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, whether the neurotransmitter metabolism in adolescent MDD is differentiated from adult MDD is still elusive. In the current study, plasma concentrations of monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitters as well as their metabolites, including tryptophan (TRP), kynurenine (KYN), kynurenic acid (KYNA), serotonin (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), dopamine (DA), 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), homovanillic acid (HVA), norepinephrine (NE), vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), glutamine (GLN), glutamate (GLU) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), were measured and compared in two cohorts of subjects (adult cohort: 31 first-episode MDD vs. 35 healthy controls; adolescent cohort: 33 first-episode MDD vs. 30 healthy controls). To assess the effects of antidepressant treatment, we also analyzed the concentrations of these indexes pre- and post-treatment in adult and adolescent cohorts. At baseline, the deficits of neurotransmitter metabolism in adult MDD were manifested in all the neurotransmitter systems. In contrast, for adolescent MDD, the dysregulation of neurotransmission was mainly indicated in the catecholaminergic systems. After antidepressant treatment, adult MDD showed increased TRP, KYN, KYNA and GLU levels, together with decreased levels of 5-HIAA and DOPAC. Adolescent MDD illustrated an increased level of 5-HT and decreased levels of TRP and GABA. The improvements of Hamilton total scores correlated with the changes in plasma TRP and the turnover of KYN/TRP after treatment in all MDD patients. However, these correlations were only manifested in the adult MDD rather than in adolescent MDD patients. The findings highlight the shared and distinguished neurotransmitter pathways in MDD and emphasize the different antidepressant responses between adults and adolescents. Potentially, the neurotransmitters above could serve as diagnostic biomarkers and provide a novel pharmacological treatment strategy for MDD.
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.