| Background Fluvoxamine is increasingly used in the treatment of depressive disorders in adolescents, but its effects on lipid metabolism, which can be a serious health hazard and affect prognosis, have received limited research and little attention from psychiatrists. Objective To analyse the effect of fluvoxamine on lipid metabolism in adolescent patients with depressive disorders and to investigate the safety of fluvoxamine treatment. Methods Sixty patients with adolescent depressive disorders who met the diagnostic criteria of International Classification of Diseases-10th (ICD-10) admitted to the inpatient department of Shanxi Mental Health Centre from June 2022 to June 2023 were consecutively selected for the study, and were divided into 30 cases each in the study group (fluvoxamine treatment) and the control group (sertraline treatment) using the random number table method. The treatment period was 4 weeks. At baseline, 2 weeks and 4 weeks after treatment, fasting lipid metabolism levels, including serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), were measured by automatic biochemical analyser, assessed by Hamilton Depression Inventory 17-item version (HAMD-17). Lipid metabolism indexes and HAMD-17 scores were compared between the two groups at different follow-up times. Results ①The differences in HAMD-17 scores between the study group and the control group at each follow-up time point were not statistically significant (F=0.646, 0.003, 0.511, P>0.05), and the HAMD-17 scores of both groups after 2 weeks of treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment were lower than those at baseline, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). ②After 4 weeks of treatment, the difference in TC levels between the study group and the control group was statistically significant (F=4.744, P<0.05); after 2 weeks of treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment, the TC levels in the control group were higher than those in the baseline period, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). ③After 2 weeks of treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment, TG levels in the control group were higher than those in the baseline period, and the difference was statistically significant in all cases (P<0.05 or 0.01). ④After 2 weeks of treatment, HDL levels were higher in the study group than in the baseline period, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). ⑤LDL levels were higher in the control group than in the baseline period after 2 weeks of treatment and after 4 weeks of treatment, the difference was statistically significant in both cases (P<0.01). Conclusion Short-term application of fluvoxamine has a small effect on lipid metabolism indices in adolescent patients with depressive disorders and may elevate HDL levels to some extent. |