Effect of Venlafaxine on Inflammatory Level in Patients with Depression

Venlafaxine is widely applied to treat depression. Herein, we further explore the effect of venlafaxine on inflammatory level in patients with depression.

Retrospectively, the medical data of patients (from January 2020 to February 2023, following up for 1 year) with depression (n=134) and without depression (health group, n=63) were collected. According to different treatment methods, patients with depression were categorized into the venlafaxine group (n=71) and the fluoxetine group (n=63). After treatment 8 weeks and 1 year, the baseline characteristics, therapeutic effect, inflammatory level and adverse events were analyzed.

After treatment 8 weeks and 1 year, there were significant improvements about depression and inflammatory level in venlafaxine group and fluoxetine group (P<0.05), showing as the obvious decreases of Hamilton depression scale-17 (HAMD-17) score, C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-4, IL-6 and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR). Furthermore, the improvements of depression and inflammatory level were obvious in venlafaxine group than those of in fluoxetine group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference about adverse events between venlafaxine group and fluoxetine group.

In this study, venlafaxine use was associated with improvement in depressive symptoms and correlated with reduced levels of inflammatory markers in patients with depression.