Author(s)

Takeyuki Akimoto¹, Chihiro Sutoh¹, Masaru Kuno², Daisuke Matsuzawa^1,2*, Tomihisa Niitsu³, Masaomi Iyo³, Eiji Shimizu^1,2

¹Department of Cognitive Behavioral Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
²Research Center for Child Mental Development, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
³Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.

A role of lower brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) content in the pathogenesis of several mental illnesses has been suggested, especially in major depression. It is not known whether BDNF is involved in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Herein, we assessed the serum BDNF content and its correlation with symptom severity in a Japanese population with OCD. The serum BDNF levels of OCD patients (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 37) were measured by ELISA. The severity of OCD symptoms was assessed by the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The OCD patients’ BDNF levels were significantly higher than those of the controls (17.5 ± 7.3 vs. 12.7 ± 4.7) (p < 0.01). No correlation was observed between the OCD patients’ BDNF levels and their OCD symptoms as scored by the Y-BOCS. For all 76 subjects, the BDI scores were significantly negatively correlated with the serum BDNF levels. Our findings revealed that contrary to previous reports, the serum BDNF content in OCD patients could be higher than that of healthy subjects.

Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), ELISA, Depression

Akimoto, T. , Sutoh, C. , Kuno, M. , Matsuzawa, D. , Niitsu, T. , Iyo, M. and Shimizu, E. (2021) Serum Levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in a Japanese Population. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 11, 20-28. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2021.111003.