Increased platelet aggregability in major depressive disorder

Depression is a ”whole-body” illness involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It can strike anyone, but people with CVD may be at greater risk. In addition, individuals with depression may be at greater risk for developing CVD so our main purpose of this study was to evaluate one well-established contributor,to cardiovascular disease, namely platelet aggregability as Abnormalities in platelet function have been proposed as a possible mechanistic link between depression and increased cardiovascular events As exaggerated platelet reactivity is associated with an increased risk of intra-arterial thrombus formation so we tried to Find relation between increased platelet aggregability and patients with major depressive disorder., we studied platelet aggregability in patients with major depression both before and after 5 weeks of anti-depressant therapy as well as in healthy control subjects. Twenty-two depressed patients and 24 healthy control subjects participated in the study. Washed and rediluted platelets were stimulated with the agonists collagen and thrombin. Depression was associated with a higher aggregability after stimulation with thrombin and with collagen which was statistically significant.After 5 weeks of anti-depressant therapy, aggregability was somewhat less exaggerated, although this effect did not reach statistical significance. We thus conclude that major depression is associated with increased platelet aggregability, which seems to persist even under a marked improvement in depressive symptomatology.This effect may contribute to the increased cardiovascular morbidity in depressed patients.