In a 15-week open-label study of citalopram (<i>n</i> = 25) and sertraline (<i>n</i> = 20), levels of DNA damage were measured by comet assay, proinflammatory (Interlukin-6 (IL-6)) and oxidative DNA damage (8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG)) markers by ELISA, and gene expression of base excision repair enzymes (8-oxoguanine glycosylase (OGG1) and poly (ADP)-ribose polymerase-1 (PARP1)) by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in healthy control patients (<i>n</i> = 14), with depression at the baseline and the same patients after week 15.
Person correlation analysis revealed that depression was correlated positively with sex, the course of the disease and hOGG1 mRNA expression; depression was correlated negatively with T-AOC.