우울증시의 혈장 Serotonin과 Norepinephrine치

Plasma Serotonin and Norepinephrine Level in Depression

There are two original monoamine hypotheses in the biochemical pathogenesis related to the depressed patients. The one, catecholamine hypothesis, has focused on peripheral hyperadrenergic functioning; the other, indolamine hypothesis, have favored defective serotonergic functioning. For the evaluation of the correlations between these two neurotransmitters, the authors investigated the plasma 5-hydroxytrptamine and norepinephrine level with high performance liquid chromatography in the depression group and normal control group. The results are as follows; 1) The depression group shows significantly decreased level of 5-HT in plasma than the control group, but there is not significant increment of norepinephrine level. 2) 5-HT level and NE level in the depression group or normal control group do not show significant correlation. 3) The NE level is not affected significantly by the change of 5-HT level in depression group. 4) But somewhat meaningful correlation coefficients are gained by subgrouping the depression group. The subgroup with lower 5-HT level shows some positive correlation and the subgroup with higher 5-HT level shows considerable negative correlation. Thus the authors are reminded of the complex interaction of monoamine neurotransmitters including the dysregulation hypothesis and the permissive hypothesis, etc.