Immune disturbances cluster around specific depressive phenotypes under conditions of structural adversity

Background

Depression is clinically heterogeneous, and immune-metabolic disturbances may not map uniformly onto categorical diagnosis or symptom severity. In populations exposed to substantial structural adversity, it remains unclear whether inflammatory and metabolic biomarker differences reflect adversity exposure itself or cluster around specific depressive phenotypes.

Methods

Data were drawn from the São Paulo Megacity Mental Health Survey, a population- based study in which 5,037 household residents underwent structured psychiatric interviews. Among 770 participants assessed as having clinically significant symptoms (SCID-I), individuals with chronic physical illnesses, hs-CRP >20 mg/L, or missing data were excluded, yielding an analytic sample of 653. Latent class analysis of 16 DSM-IV depressive symptoms was used to identify symptom-derived phenotypes. Multinomial logistic regression tested associations between latent classes and immune-metabolic biomarkers, including hs-CRP, lipid fractions, fasting glucose, and triglycerides, adjusting for age, sex, education, smoking, and BMI.

Results

A four-class solution identified asymptomatic (44.56%), mild-moderate (19.14%), atypical-like (16.69%), and melancholic-like (19.60%) classes. The two high-severity classes diverged by neurovegetative features: atypical-like depression was characterised by weight gain, hypersomnia, and psychomotor retardation, whereas melancholic-like depression was characterised by weight loss, insomnia, and psychomotor agitation. hs-CRP was highest in the atypical-like class and lowest in the melancholic-like class despite similar symptom severity. After BMI adjustment, elevated hs-CRP in the atypical-like class attenuated, whereas lower hs- CRP in the melancholic-like class persisted. Other metabolic markers did not robustly differentiate classes after adjustment.

Conclusions

Immune-metabolic differences in depression do not simply follow symptom severity. In this São Paulo cohort, higher and lower hs-CRP profiles clustered around distinct latent depressive phenotypes, supporting biologically heterogeneous depressive presentations within a socially exposed urban population.

Highlights

• Latent class analysis (LCA) of 16 DSM-IV symptoms identified four symptom-derived classes: asymptomatic, mild–moderate, atypical-like, and melancholic-like.

• The two high-severity classes diverged primarily by neurovegetative features: weight gain/hypersomnia versus weight loss/insomnia.

• hs-CRP was highest in the atypical-like class and lowest in the melancholic-like class.

• Elevated hs-CRP in the atypical-like class attenuated after BMI adjustment, whereas lower hs-CRP in the melancholic-like class persisted after BMI adjustment.

• Findings suggest that immune-metabolic differences in depression may cluster around symptom-derived phenotypes rather than severity alone.