Low serum zinc level in dpression

Background: major depressive disorder (mdd) is a common disorder, with a lifetime prevalence of about 15 percent,perhaps as high as 25 percent for women. the etiology of mdd is too complex to be explained totally by a singlesocial, developmental, or biological theory. a variety of factors appear to work together to cause or precipitate depressivedisorders. various functions have been reported for trace elements such as zink in recovery or exacerbation of depression.methods: in this experimental study, we studied 46 patients with mdd based on dsm iv criteria, among the patientsreferred to mental disorders clininc of noor hospital. twenty patients were men and 26 were women. thirty two volunteersof general population were evaluated for depression with beck depression test who did not show any depressivesymptoms with this test. a blood sample of 5cc was obtained from each person and the serum zinc concentration wasmeasured. data gathered and analyzed with spss, logistic regression and chi-squar tests.results: serum zinc concentrations were 74 to 130 mg/dl in men and 60 to 128 mg/dl in women of control group. serumzinc concentration was 30 to 60 mg/dl in depressive patients that it was lower in women than men. the differencebetween serum zinc concentrations of normal and depressive persons was meaningful (p = 0.02).conclusion: in our study, the serum concentration of zinc was about half of normal value. this study replicates previousfindings that major depressed subjects show significantly lowered serum zinc concentration.