Serum Calcium and Magnesium Levels do not correlate with Severity of Major Depressive Disorder

• Author Details:   
• Sharma Ram A.
• Rozatkar Abhijit R.
• Singh Sangeeta B.
• Singh Abhishek

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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the leading cause of morbidity amongst psychiatric illness. Pathophysiology of MDD is still a matter of research and not much is known about it. Although, it is certain that neurotransmitters are implicated in MDD, yet there are no investigations available which can confirm this and hence help in establishing the diagnosis. Last century has much debated about these neurotransmitters’ and elements which play a role in their release in synapse. Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc are a few elements which are involved in physiology of neurons and therefore various hypothesis have been put forward regarding these elements and their role in treatment of MDD. This study made an attempt to review correlation between serum levels of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and severity of MDD using PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire - 9) scale. A total of 119 patients were diagnosed with MDD (over a period of 4 months) out of which 79 patients were included after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. PHQ-9 categorized patients in no depression (n = 7), minimal (n = 11), mild (n = 34), moderately severe (n = 20) and severe (n = 7).Mean level of serum Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium were found to be 139 ± 4.101 mEq/L, 4.05 ± 0.439mEq/L, 9.1 ± 0.49 mg/dl, 1.85 ± 0.311 mg/dl respectively. Fifty four out of 79 patients diagnosed with major depressive episode in our sample had no abnormality in serum levels of any electrolyte, while seven had abnormality in 2 or more electrolyte levels. Data was analyzed and there seemed to be no evident correlation between serum levels of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium with severity of MDD. In our study with patients of MDD we found no correlation in severity of depressive symptoms with serum electrolyte levels of Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium.

Key Words: Calcium, Major depressive disorder, Magnesium, PHQ-9