Correlational study on plasma cytokine levels and severity of depression in first-episode adolescent depression patients

Table 1 Comparison of demographic characteristics in study group and control group, mean ± SD/n (%)

Variables	Study group (n = 100)	Control group (n = 50)	P value
Age (years)	15.58 ± 1.98	15.20 ± 2.00	0.271
Gender (female/male)	52/48	27/23	0.624
BMI (kg/m2)	22.34 ± 3.18	22.07 ± 2.94	0.616
Only child			0.651
Yes	89 (89.00)	46 (92.00)
No	11 (11.00)	4 (8.00)

BMI: Body mass index.

Table 2 Comparison of plasma cytokines between the mild to moderate and severe group, median (interquartile range)

Plasma cytokines (ng/L)	Mild to moderate depression (n = 54)	Severe depression (n = 46)	P value
Before treatment
IL-10	0.46 (0.38, 0.55)	0.71 (0.44, 0.90)	< 0.001
IL-6	1.19 (0.90, 1.63)	2.43 (1.65, 3.51)	< 0.001
TNF-α	0.87 (0.60, 1.13)	1.51 (0.98, 1.95)	< 0.001
After treatment
IL-10	0.49 (0.36, 0.57)	0.40 (0.23, 0.59)	0.074
IL-6	1.02 (0.70, 1.40)	1.02 (0.75, 1.35)	0.750
TNF-α	0.97 (0.70, 1.24)	0.96 (0.71, 1.23)	0.793

IL-10: Interleukin-10; IL-6: Interleukin-6; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha.