The correlation between white blood cell count, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and depression severity in patients with first episode depression / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the relationship between white blood cells, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio(NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio(PLR) and monocyte-lymphocyte ratio(MLR) with patients suffering from first episode depression.Methods:This retrospective study was conducted among inpatients of Hebei General Hospital from January 2021 to December 2021.Ultimately, 193 patients with first-episode depression were enrolled.According to the score of Hamilton depression scale-24 (HAMD-24), the patients were divided into mild-moderate depression group(20≤HAMD-24<35 score, n=98) and severe depression group (HAMD-24 score ≥35, n=95). White blood cells and the counts of each cell subtype were detected and the NLR, MLR and PLR were calculated.SPSS 25.0 statistical software was used to analyze the data.Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare differences in the two groups and Binary Logistic regression analyses were performed to recognize the predictive factors of the severity of first episode depression. Results:(1) The white blood cells and NLR in the severe depression group were significantly higher than those in the mild-moderate depression group (white blood cells: 5.77(2.05)×10 9/L vs 5.11(1.31)×10 9/L; NLR: 1.86 (1.04) vs 1.57(0.55), P<0.05). There were no significant differences in PLR and MLR between the two groups ( P>0.05). (2)Multiple regression analysis of NLR, white blood cells and HAMD-24 score showed that there were significant differences in the effect of different white blood cells and NLR levels on HAMD-24 score( B=1.398, P=0.003; B=2.624, P=0.001). (3)Binary Logistic regression revealed that white blood cell count and NLR were risk factors for the severity of depression patients( OR were 1.612 and 2.336, respectively, P<0.05). Conclusion:The results suggest that white blood cells and NLR may be relate with the severity of first episode depression.