ArticleInternational journal of bipolar disorders2023
Differential diagnosis of unipolar versus bipolar depression by GSK3 levels in peripheral blood: a pilot experimental study.
Article in International journal of bipolar disorders, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fibroblast Growth Factors and Their Receptors in Major Depressive Disorder: A Scoping Review of Translational Research.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Clinical Significance and Changes in Levels of Serum BDNF, mBDNF, AQP4, proBDNF, and GSK3β in Individuals Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- AI at the Bedside of Psychiatry: Comparative Meta-Analysis of Imaging vs. Non-Imaging Models for Bipolar vs. Unipolar Depression.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Differential diagnosis of bipolar II disorder and major depressive disorder: Integrating multimodal approaches to overcome clinical challenges.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
- Depression among married individuals: new evidence in Türkiye.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Metabolic plasticity: an evolutionary perspective on metabolic and circadian dysregulation in bipolar disorder.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- A new framework for mental illnesses diagnosis using wearable devices aided by improved convolutional neural network.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Deletion of Fgf14 confers resilience to basal and stress-induced depressive-like behavior and reduces anxiety in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Comparison of clinical features and inflammatory factors between patients with bipolar depression and unipolar depression.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Comparing plasma levels and ratios of tryptophan, serotonin, kynurenine and quinolinic acid between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls: impact of depressive episode or post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- A review of diffusion MRI in mood disorders: mechanisms and predictors of treatment response.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
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 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe differential diagnosis of patients presenting for the first time with a depressive episode into unipolar disorder versus bipolar disorder is crucial to establish the correct pharmacological therapy (antidepressants vs mood stabilizers), but no biological markers are currently available. Several lines of evidence indicate an involvement of Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (GSK3) in the pathophysiology of depression. However, previous reports about GSK3 in peripheral blood were incomplete or inconsistent, so a specific marker is not yet available. The aim was to search for consistent differences in GSK3α and GSK3β or of their phosphorylated forms in samples of peripheral blood from patients with unipolar and bipolar depression.
methodsMononucleate peripheral blood cells (PBMCs) of samples from patients presenting with a depressive episode were analyzed with the western blot technique.
resultsThe total amount of GSK3β in PBMCs was significantly lower in patients with bipolar disorder than in patients with unipolar depression. The sensitivity based on GSK3β was 85%. GSK3α was not significantly different but allowed a correct detection of 57% of BD patients. The combination in series of GSK3β and GSK3α yields a sensitivity of about 100%, but with 26.7% false negatives.
conclusionsOur results suggest that PBMC GSK3β could be a candidate biomarker for the differential diagnosis of bipolar disorder versus unipolar depression. This finding may help in implementing the still limited panel of peripheral biomarkers for differential diagnosis between unipolar and bipolar disorder in patients presenting with a depressive episode.
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.