Jh. Markovitz et al., Platelet activation in depression and effects of sertraline treatment: An open-label study, AM J PSYCHI, 157(6), 2000, pp. 1006-1008
Objective: The authors' goal was to determine whether sertraline attenuates
the increased platelet activation seen among depressed patients.
Method: They tested 21 otherwise healthy patients with untreated major depr
essive episode who were 25-52 years old and 21 age- and sex-matched compari
son subjects. Patients received 6 weeks of sertraline treatment, and 17 ret
urned for retesting.
Results: At baseline, the depressed patients had greater platelet secretion
than the Comparison subjects in response to collagen. Depressed patients w
ith a family history of coronary disease had nonsignificanly greater wound-
induced fibrinogen receptor binding than the other subjects. Platelet secre
tion response collagen was significantly reduced after treatment with sertr
aline.
Conclusions: Sertraline diminished the increased platelet secretion found a
mong depressed patients, although the findings are limited by a lack of a p
lacebo control group.