Childhood trauma and platelet brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) after a three month follow-up in patients with major depressive disorder

A large amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is stored in the human platelets and only small amounts of it circulate in the plasma. However, a few studies have focused on platelet BDNF in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and childhood trauma. Our study population consisted of 105 MDD patients and 50 healthy controls. We used the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.), the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form (ETISR-SF), as well as measured serum, plasma, and platelet BDNF at baseline, 1 month, and 3 month periods. There was a significant association between childhood trauma and platelet BDNF at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months, after adjusting for age, gender, education, body mass index, severity of depression, anxiety, alcohol consumption, and current stress. Conversely, plasma and serum BDNF did not have a significant association with childhood trauma. MDD patients revealed significantly higher levels of platelet BDNF in those with childhood trauma than in those without (t = 2.4, p = 0.018), and platelet BDNF was significantly higher in cases with sexual abuse on post-hoc analysis (p = 0.042). However, no significant differences were found in healthy controls, according to whether or not they had experienced childhood trauma. Platelet BDNF showed a significant correlation with severity of childhood trauma at baseline (r = 0.25, p = 0.012) and at 3 months (r = 0.38, p = 0.003) in MDD. In conclusion, platelet BDNF was significantly higher in MDD patients with childhood trauma than in those without, and it was correlated with severity of trauma.