Lipid and lipoprotein levels in depressive disorders with melancholic feature or atypical feature and dysthymia.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between serum lipid and lipoprotein levels and clinical subtypes in patients with depressive disorders. A total of 207 patients who were admitted for general health screening were assessed by using the semistructured clinical interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn; DSM-IV) criteria for the possibility of having depressive disorders. Blood and physical examinations were done to rule out systemic diseases. A total of 142 patients without systemic diseases was recruited for further analysis, including dysthymia (n = 35), major depressive disorder with melancholic feature (n = 22), major depressive disorder with atypical feature (n = 46) and normal controls (n = 39). Analysis of covariance after age adjustment reveals significant differences in patients with melancholic feature and patients with atypical feature in serum concentrations of triglyceride (TG) and very-low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) in men, and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) in women. This suggests that the TG, VLDL and HDL levels might be used as biological markers to differentiate between major depressive patients with melancholic feature or atypical feature.