Objectives: Major Depression with severe anxiety has been proposed as a distinct clinical variant of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). This proposal invites the investigation of the differential biological correlates of the anxious versus non-anxious MDD. One such research area might be their possible differential associations with androgens.
Methods: Plasma total testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone were assessed in adequately matched female inpatients with anxious MDD, non-anxious MDD and normal controls.
Results: Androgen levels were significantly lower in both patient groups compared to those of controls. Moreover, they were significantly lower in anxious MDD patients compared to those of their non-anxious MDD counterparts. The limitations of this study were cross-sectional design of the study, the small sample size of the study sample and the outpatient status of the control group. In addition, free testosterone levels were not measured.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that female major depression is associated with lower androgen levels, a deficiency aggravated by the severity of their concomitant anxiety.